Annise Parker Elected First Openly Gay Mayor of Houston: Mars Opposite Jupiter
Houston held its mayoral elections on November 3rd 2009. 5 candidates went up against each other, but no candidate achieved a majority of the votes. A runoff vote was held yesterday between the top two candidates. Annise Parker emerged victorious, making Houston the largest city in the US to have elected an openly gay mayor. What’s the astrological story you ask? Here it is.
Annise Parker was born on May 17th 1956 in Houston, Texas, birth time unknown. She was born when Jupiter was at 22 degrees of Leo. Her political career took off when she was elected a council member for the city of Houston on December 6th 1997, and was later sworn in on January 2nd 1998. This occurred while transiting Jupiter was at 22 degrees of Aquarius, exactly opposite her natal Jupiter at 22 Leo. 12 years later, Jupiter is back at 22 degrees of Aquarius opposite her natal Jupiter at 22 Leo, right as she has advanced her career to the position of mayor.
Parker’s Mars-Jupiter recurrence transit
This isn’t the end of the story however. Her election has received a good deal of national attention because of her sexual orientation. Jupiter in Aquarius is currently opposite Mars in Leo. This is significant for Parker because she was born with Mars opposite Jupiter herself, and so she is experiencing her Mars-Jupiter recurrence transit. Not only that, but Mars and Jupiter are opposed in the opposite degrees of her natal Mars-Jupiter opposition. You can see Mars and Jupiter highlighted in red in both her natal chart and the transits of her victory.
Jupiter is supposed to provide opportunities and successes, Mars is supposed to provide troubles and conflicts. Having those two forces in opposition likely indicates that the more successful she is, the more antagonism will come up against her.
While this is true for most politicians, this is especially pertinent for her as a gay politician in a country, (as well as a region of a country), where equal rights for gays has been a contentious issue.With the glare of the national spotlight, she could become a target for people who consider her sexual orientation to be immoral.
History Rhymes
The thing that sort of amplifies that worry for me is the fact that Mars is just about a week from stationing retrograde. For a while now I have been working on a very long astrological history of gay rights which I hope to publish soon.
Basically what I’ve observed is that the synodic cycles of Mars have a curiously prominent role in that history. There are reasons for that which I will explain in that article, but it is somewhat satisfying to see the pattern hold up. This time period reminds me a lot of Harvey Milk’s ascent to power in San Francisco politics.
Harvey Milk was sworn in on January 9th 1978, at a Sun-Venus superior conjunction in Capricorn while Mars was retrograde in Leo. 32 years later (the recurrence period of Venus and Mars), Annise Parker will be sworn in on January 2nd 2010, at a Sun-Venus superior conjunction in Capricorn while Mars will be retrograde in Leo. I am not intimating that something bad will happen to Annise Parker, as it did for Harvey Milk, but just as Mark Twain said about history: it never repeats, but it does rhyme.
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Hey PW, nice article and good blogging here. Keep em coming!
Hey thanks John! I feel like I haven’t heard from you in years! It’s hard having a life and keeping on top of blogging but I’m going to really try. Certainly a change from my ol’ Myspace “Thoughts” blog days huh? Good to hear from you!
Refreshing to see someone using planets and cycles rather than all the Popsicle stuff of signs, houses and sects(!) which are so much distraction, so unable to be verified by a cogent methodological study.
Have only just discovered your site, but will bookmark it and return often. I, too, appreciate your use of the Cycles in Astrology. A lot of information can be gleaned from the back and forth of the planets as they meet each other in transit as well as mirror one’s own natal aspects.
I hope that made sense. :^) Anyway, wanted to write, thank you for a wonderful article, and say I look forward to the aforementioned thoughts on the place Mars — and, presumably, his cycles — has on Gay Rights.
Keep up the great work.
Jonathan
Really great to find an astrologer exploring planetary signatures with regard to the movement for eaual rights for gay people. I look forward to reading your articles on the topic! Wondering if you can see anything regarding the movement for marriage equality, especially with Saturn now moving into Libra there should be some interesting astro events on this.