Hello everyone.

I’ve just spent the afternoon with Sarah Palin.  Not literally of course, but for our leadership study on Aquarians.  Sarah is an Aquarian to the max:  Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars, and Saturn.  The two remaining inner planets, Venus and Jupiter, are in Aries.

One of Time Magazine's 2010 World's Most Influential People (Source:Wikipedia)

I really enjoyed my research on Palin.  I started with Wikipedia, then went to AstroDataBank to get her chart.  I read several articles on her from news magazines.  I found my way to her “Sarah Palin’s Alaska” show for The Learning Channel and watched the first episode.  Then I must have watched 20 YouTube videos on her, from the early Katie Couric Interview when Sarah was a Vice-presidential candidate to the recent comments she made regarding the Arizona shootings.

I wanted to write about Palin because we’re looking at Aquarian leadership qualities and the two I’ve covered so far, Yoko Ono and Franklin D. Roosevelt, are firmly in the liberal end of the spectrum.  I wanted to see how these same qualities apply to someone on a different square in the political landscape.

As I listened to super-Aquarian Sarah Palin, I recognized many of the traits we’ve discovered in the last two posts.

Let’s review the Aquarian qualities we’ve developed in this series and round them out with Palin’s interesting personality (in bold):

  • Each sign has its keyword, a phrase which captures the essence of the sign.  The keyword for Aquarius is “I Know.”  Aquarians know what they know and they’re certain they’re right!  It is striking how confident Palin is.  Katie Couric called her “cool, calm, and collected.”  There never seems to be a moment of doubt.  Regarding the Israel/Iran conflict she said with absolute certainty, “I know who the good guys are, and who the bad guys are.”
  • “Aquarians are the mental pioneers, the forward thinking individuals who live in the future and not in the past.” (Isabel Hickey, Astrology A Cosmic Science)  Palin comes off as impatient; exasperated by lack of progress toward her goals for the country. It’s also fascinating how she seems to have completely dropped the past, her governorship, her vice-presidential run, as if they are an annoyance. Her gaze in firmly toward the future.
  • “Aquarians are inflexible in their ideas and cannot be pushed into anything they do not want to do.” (Ibid.)  Aquarians can become trapped in their ideology.  Palin gives the sense that she believes what she believes because she believes it, and there is no need to contemplate it any further.
  • “They are rebels and individualists [who] have to go their own way.  Independent, imaginative, creative and inventive, there is a genius about them if they are evolved.” (Ibid.)  I have to admire her spirit.  Her life in Alaska as a hunter, fisher, hiker shows the independent spirit that draw so many to that state.  She obviously followed her own winding path as she gained her education, attending six universities in five years.
  • Ruled by two planets, Saturn and Uranus, Aquarians can be progressive in some ways and conservative in others.  With Saturn in Aquarius, she tends toward the conservative side of the spectrum.  But I noticed contradictions in her thinking about government.  As an example, when talking about the banking crisis she said she favors government-led “reform” but not regulations.  She wanted more oversight, but she wanted government to stay out of the crisis.  This seems like her Aquarian nature is split between liberalism and conservatism.
  • In Aquarius, “the individual loses himself in the group and shoulders his responsibility as a cell in the larger body of humanity.” (Liz Greene, Saturn)  I see this in Palin.  It’s like she has become a spokesperson for a certain part of the collective.  It’s hard to discern her feeling nature.  Her personal life has become a vehicle for her political message.
  • The Aquarian support for the disenfranchised often stems from personal experience.  This lends authenticity to their deep compassion for the downtrodden.  This one doesn’t seem to fit.  However, I don’t know much about her early, more personal life.
  • As an air sign, Aquarians lead primarily with ideas.  They are often thought leaders, out in front, pulling the public into new perceptions.  I think Sarah pulled many of us into a new perspective, a dawning of new consciousness about what was happening in the American zeitgeist.  I once heard it said of Newt Gingrich that he was like a bird flying in formation, and all of a sudden he realized the flock had all lined up behind him.  That’s how Sarah seems to me.  A certain political attitude was ready to erupt and she put a face and personality to that fervor.
  • Aquarians have been called “stubbornly liberal.”  There is a fixed nature to Aquarius, the persistence and determination to right the wrongs they perceive in society.  Perhaps not stubbornly liberal, but you can feel her persistence as she keeps herself in the forefront of the political discussion.
  • Searing intelligence is a common trait of Aquarius.  I think Palin demonstrates her intelligence in her knack for self-promotion.  She gains support through appealing to the protectionism of common people and to a sense of patriotism.  Brilliant!
  • Aquarians carry an inborn conflict.  They are often fiercely independent yet committed to humanitarian causes, which brings them into necessary contact with groups.  When I watched her in her “Alaska” show, I could sense that this was a woman who is truly at home in the wilderness, in spending time outdoors, writing and researching on her porch.  She has built a television studio at her home, conducting her many appearances against the backdrop of staggering natural beauty.  I think she displays this trait well.
  • Devotion to the common man is a standard trait of most Aquarians.  Yes, definitely.  Her “common man” may not be yours or mine, but she does seem sincerely devoted to “the people’s movement.”

    Republican Vice-Presidential Candidate (Source:Wikipedia)

  • There is often seemingly unflagging energy and a huge quantity of output.  This deep reserve of energy is a feature of all of the fixed signs and it shows itself here in fixed-air Aquarius.  You should see her hiking over glaciers!  And she does seem to have loads of energy, never tiring in what was obviously a grueling campaign which she was unprepared for in many ways.  And she has continued to produce, writing two books in the last two years, producing a television show, appearing at numerous Tea Party and Republican Party events, raising children, being a commentator on Fox News, and more.
  • The Aquarius does not generally think he/she has all of the answers.  They are open to input from various sources.  They enjoy a good debate and willingly engage with opposing points of view.   Uhhh.  I don’t know about this one.  She does say she receives and appreciates advice from her husband.
  • Alliances based upon and supported by friendship are deeply important to Aquarians.  A community brings out the best of their traits and they are loyal to others over the long-term.   This makes me think that her alliance with the Tea Party is stronger and more permanent than I had thought.
  • Aquarians “sacrifice their private life to a public cause.”  Becoming obsessed with that cause they can fall into workaholism and forfeit their own health for others.   Even while riding in a float plane above Alaska on her way to see grizzlies, she was working the entire time on her Blackberry.  I get the sense that her private life has been completely sacrificed to a cause.  I had thought that cause was Sarah Palin.  But after seeing her chart with all of the Aquarian influence, I now think she may be authentically working for the public interest.  Rhetoric is real in her case.
  • Aquarians tend to be “ahead of the curve” with technology, early adopters of the latest breakthroughs.  They have an intuitive resonance with the future and an uncanny ability to foretell the direction of coming change.   I think she was well positioned to bring excitement to the Republican Party when they needed it most.  And resigning from the Governorship of Alaska just as her poll numbers began to drop was probably a wise move for her future life in the public sphere.
  • Aquarians have a natural facility with words and can be excellent communicators.  They have an informal, casual conversational style which conveys confidence and garners trust.   I heard an interview with a presidential speechwriter the other day who said that Sarah Palin will have to drop her folksy idioms to be taken seriously.  I’m not sure.  Her way of speaking is one of the things which endear her to her supporters.  Her “don’t retreat; reload” comment, which was so disparaged in light of the Arizona shootings, actually has great appeal to her fans.
  • Aquarians have great courage when defending the rights of others.  She says that she can handle the mocking and criticism because she’s fighting for democracy for her country.  There’s no doubt it takes massive courage to survive on the stage she has set for herself.

What do you think?  A good example of Aquarius, right?

The Sun moves into Pisces soon and we’ll move our study into that sign.  But now it’s your turn.  What is the one essential piece of advice you would give to an Aquarius just stepping into a position of leadership?  What do you see as the most authentic trait of an Aquarian leader?

Thanks for participating!  I look forward to your comments.

In case you missed them, here are the first two posts in this series:

Aquarius Leadership – Yoko Ono

Aquarius Leadership – Franklin D. Roosevelt

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For an Intro to Sun Signs and Leadership see this link to my other blog!

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For an overview of the month, see the Astro4Business Month Ahead – February 2011

For more info on the business descriptions of the planets mentioned in this post, see

Saturn

Uranus

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