Who will win the 2004 US Presidential Elections?
Dear friends,
Hare Krsna! It is with some trepidation that I now venture forth to predict who will win the 2004 US presidential election. Will it be the incumbent George W. Bush or the challenger John F. Kerry? To answer this I will try to be concise and not use too much astrological jargon. And, I would like to point out that I am not affiliated with either party and am unbiased. First the birth details of the contenders:
George W. Bush born: July 6th, 1946 at 7:20 AM, EDT in New Haven, Connecticut 72W56, 41N18
This data was gotten from the late Lois Rodden's Astro Data Bank. It appears from the source that Bush's birth data is from a birth certificate while Kerry's seems less certain and only approximate.
The short answer: Bush will win.
The long answer:
Both charts have their strengths and weaknesses. What most struck me was that in both charts the Lagna lord, the planet who rules the ascendant and hence is the most important planet in the chart, is conjunct with the 9th lord, the planet representing good fortune, power of destiny, piety, belief in God and many other beneficial things. In fact the 9th lord is the most fortunate planet in any horoscope and one can easily tell what the destiny of someone will be by the disposition of this planet. In both cases the combination of Lagna lord and 9th lord are very good, hence it is no surprise that both men have in a sense been born with a silver spoon in their mouths. I shall return to this point later because I think it holds the key to who will win.
In Kerry's chart he is now running Budha Mahadasa and Budha Bhukti which began on May 5th 2003. Budha (Mercury) is a natural benefic by nature and he is a functional neutral because of ownership of evil 8th but good 11th. However temporally (during his period) Budha will tend to give bad results because any planet ruling the 3rd, 6th or 11th gives negative results during his period, what to speak of the fact that he also rules the 8th house. And since he does rule two houses he will tend to give the result of the 8th house more in the first half of the Budha Mahadasa (and Bhukti as well) and give more of the 11th house effects in the second half of the Mahadasa. Since he will give more of the 8th house effect this is not so good especially when we note that the 8th house contains Sani (Saturn) who is a malefic. In the Navamsa Budha is well placed in the 7th but in the Dasamsa he is not good, placed in the 3rd. Hence it would seem that the current Mahadasa and Bhukti of Budha are not so favorable for Kerry compared to Bush as we shall see.
In Bush's chart the Mahadasa is Sani and the Bhukti is that of Guru (Jupiter) which began on October 26, 2003. Since Bush has a Kataka (Cancer) Lagna that means that the current Mahadasa and Bhukti represent that of the Lords of the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th. Hence for Kataka Lagna people the inter periods of Sani-Guru or Guru-Sani tend to be problematic because the evil 6th and 8th houses become prominent as well as the 7th house which is the Marakastan (death inflicting place). A secondary meaning for Marakastan is that it will cause impediments. So out of the 4 houses represented during this Sani-Guru period 3 are troublesome for Bush. And indeed we have seen that with the onset of this period that with the exception of the capture of Saddam Hussein and the progressing economy (despite economic instability) he has had to face many challenges in his administration. Still we must note that despite this fact Guru is the 9th lord of Bhagya (good fortune) and it is conjunct with Candra (Moon) who is the Lagna lord and together they both aspect the 9th house of good fortune. So here lies a critical difference. In Bush's chart the current period while troublesome still points to good fortune because Guru is lord of 9th with the Lagna Lord and aspecting the 9th. This much stronger position in the Rasi chart is supported in the vargas as well. Sani, Guru, Candra and Mangala (Mars) are all in the 10th in Navamsa. And in Dasamsa though both Sani and Guru are in nica (debilitated) amsas, that weakness gets canceled by association of exalted Mangala. And when we look to numerical strength such as Vimshopak Bush's planets are by far much stronger than Kerry's. So far things are tilting in Bush's direction.
On the day of the election, November 2, 2004 by Gochara (transit) it would appear that the planets favor Kerry. But we should remember that Gochara cannot give results not promised by the Mahadasa and Bhukti, Gochara is only a modifying agent and cannot stand alone. Also if we go deeper and look at the Ashtakavarga then even the Gochara is more favorable to Bush. To clarify this I finally did Prasna and in the Prasna chart it became clear that Bush would definitely win over Kerry.
So in conclusion George Bush will win over John Kerry.
Regarding this prediction I already got one comment on the same day. They wrote:
"Thanks for the heads up on the election. I admire your putting your neck on the line. Will you give up this hocus-pocus business if you are wrong or go back and explain where you read it incorrectly?"
To which I replied:
"If I am wrong then it is because I made a mistake. Astrology is perfect; astrologers are not."
This person is a friend and he meant no offense but other people have the view that if an astrologer makes a mistake it invalidates astrology.
If a good cook burns an item, should they give up cooking? If a good doctor makes a mistake or is unable to help a patient should they give up medicine? If an adult who knows how to walk trips and falls should they give up walking? I think you see my point.
I am a realist. I do not claim to be God or omniscient and am quite capable of making an error especially when having to juggle so many more factors than is normally done in a chart reading of an individual. Still, I have had a lot of success in the predictive field so I am not worried if I make occasional errors. Now, if the ratio was reversed and I mostly made mistakes with the occasional success, which was probably a fluke, I would have given up on astrology long ago. But that is not the case and I have hundreds of emails and letters of appreciation for correct predictions over the years so that is why I am still doing this.
If one is afraid to predict because one may make an error then you should not be in astrology because I guarantee you that you will make mistakes in astrology just like in everything else no matter how good you are or how many years you have been doing this. Of course one hopes to make fewer mistakes with experience but they still do occur even to the best of us. We note how experienced professionals in any field are not error proof.
But only in the case of astrology is the whole enterprise of astrology brought into question if an astrologer makes a mistake.
However, if an astrologer makes a mistake it is taken to completely invalidate astrology and he should quit, but the same criteria is not applied to any other sphere of life. One of my clients is a physician, I had made many successful predictions to him. But once I made a mistake and since he was an old friend I offered him a refund. He told me to keep the money because my success rate was much higher than that of doctors. He told me: "If we had to give back money every time we made a mistake we would be out of business." So even the best doctors, car mechanics, scientists, mathematicians, hair stylists, cooks, indeed everyone in the world makes mistakes in their profession. But only in the case of astrology is the whole enterprise of astrology brought into question if an astrologer makes a mistake. It seems that the expectations of the public are not in line with reality. Or perhaps there is some bias against astrology. Something to think about.
Yours faithfully
Shyamasundara Dasa
Posted October 27, 2004
