Rhetorical question: Will Joe Biden have a summit with Tecumseh? And if so, will the summit be held in Tippecanoe? Most readers will know the urban legend to which these questions refer. But for those readers who don’t know the tale, the question can be rephrased: Will Joe Biden die in office, according to the 20-year curse? Seven of the eight presidents of the United States who died in office were elected on years that ended in 0 and which were divisible by 20. We’ll have a look here.
To start answering the question posed at the start of this post, as in if Biden will die in office, this will not be a post about such a prediction. Instead, we will be examining the ‘death indicators’ in the horoscopes of the presidents who did die in office – all eight of them, in fact – and what was indicated. Then we will have a look at Joe Biden’s chart. Why would we do this? Is such a thing not pointing negativity at Biden, perhaps aiding the curse? And why make such a prediction if the conditions that show death are there? The latter question goes to the point of this post: We are looking here not at presidents, but at what might be the indicators of the ‘ultimate transition’ – death, in other words. There is a little story behind this post.
The 22nd of November is an anniversary that will live in infamy for Americans. It was the day one of the more beloved American presidents was assassinated in broad daylight at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, TX in 1963. There is a post on this site from a couple of years ago remembering that anniversary and the life of the man. His assassination was more than his death. It was a coup, recently described in more detail in another remembrance piece. We won’t cover that here. The piece just linked does an admirable job of parsing it.
Instead, JFK’s murder brought up musings on the eclipse at this past full moon (19 Nov 2021) that fell on Biden’s Sun. It provoked some curiosity among some astrologers as to whether or not ‘Uncle Joe’ would be with us for much longer. And some people are hopeful, one way or the other as to whether Biden finishes his term or not. Some people were likewise hopeful regarding Trump, one way or the other. That said, Joe Biden has had eclipses on his Sun every 19 years, and he is still with us. It takes more than an eclipse to ‘kill’ someone. That brings us to the points of this post.
Forecasting death by looking at a horoscope is a tricky business at best. In general, it is largely accepted by Western astrologers that the 1st and 8th houses have to be activated in a chart for death of the native to be indicated. But even that is not so cut and dried, as we will see. And further, the said houses have to be activated by directions rather than transits. Transits, as a general rule, do not indicate a person’s death, unless they activate eclipses and/or directions.
But the big caveat in all of these investigations is that one must have an accurate birth time to look at such eventualities, and even that is not the be-all-end-all. But directions to and by the angles of the chart are the major indicators of life’s events, and if the birth time is off by even four minutes any forecast can be off by a year, for instance. With these points in mind, what are the possible ‘death indicators’ in a chart? We have the following, and these are not all-inclusive:
- Directions to or by the Ascendant and 8th house cusps and/or their rulers
- Directions to or by the Mars/Saturn axis (the ‘Death Axis’), especially if the points preceding are active
- The 4th house and/or its ruler will usually be active at the time of death, the 4th house indicating the conditions at the end of life or the outcome of situations.
- In Chinese astrology, there is the following: “If the Life Pillar clashes completely with any of the main Four Pillars (both stem and stem clashes, and branch and branch also clash) OR the Life Pillar is the exact Pillar as any of main Four Pillars, in that period as represented by that Pillar, the person will likely have a possible death year.”
Note with all these factors, we have the possibility of death. We have not discussed Chinese astrology at all on this site, but when looking at something as ‘life-changing’ as death, if the Chinese astrology confirms the points preceding then death is more than likely.
We have an example of the possibility and the confirmation or not of death with the Chinese astrology via the chart of Donald Trump, and then we will move on to the Western considerations, staying with the latter here. The Western astrology indicated the strong possibility of his death with COVID. All the first three bullet points above were in place, with the possibility of a sudden and perhaps violent death or death by sudden catastrophic illness. And if he had contracted that type of pneumonia a century ago, in all likelihood he would not have made it.
There was the factor with Trump’s astrology and in the midpoints of a possible ‘intervention by a Higher Power’ as Ebertin’s Cosmobiology describes, and trump did pull through. But those same directions and transits were in place a month later at the election, which he lost. Evangelical Christians might say it was the power of prayer that got him through the illness. I would put my money on modern and aggressive medical intervention instead. And all the prayers in the world failed to get him re-elected.
Regardless of whether or not the election was stolen, Biden is president now. Trump lost, as in he isn’t president now, and that in itself is a kind of death, as in being removed from office. In his Chinese astrology the Annual Pillar (Metal Rat) clashed completely with his Life Pillar (Wood Horse), indicating a very difficult year, but not a death. There had been a possibility for his death in the 2nd quarter of his life, which he avoided.
As a final note before moving on to Western considerations, in 2024 the annual Pillar again clashes with Trump’s Life Pillar, though not completely. However, his Luck Pillar (10-year progressed) is still negative and the directions to his chart at that time are very stressful, despite Jupiter transiting over his Sun at the time. A victory or even a run in 2024 does not look promising for Trump. From here we move on to our main considerations.
Wikipedia has the following excerpt regarding Tecumseh’s curse:
“The presidents elected on such years from 1840 to 1960 died in office: William Henry Harrison (1840), Abraham Lincoln (1860), James A. Garfield (1880), William McKinley (1900), Warren G. Harding (1920), Franklin D. Roosevelt (1940) and John F. Kennedy (1960). These are seven of the eight total presidents who have died in office. Since 1960, the three presidents who were elected on applicable years have not died in office. Ronald Reagan (1980) and George W. Bush (2000) survived their terms in office. Joe Biden (2020) is the current president and next in line.”
The one president who died in office who did not fall under the ’20-year rule’ was Zachary Taylor, who died on July 9, 1850 after just over a year in office. We will not cover his death here.
Of the presidents listed according to the supposed curse, there were failed assassination attempts on Reagan (30 Mar 1981) and Bush (10 May 2005). Reagan was actually shot, though not seriously wounded, while Bush escaped the attempt by the fluke of a dud grenade. Had the grenade exploded, Bush and the Georgian president Saakashvili may have been killed.
Harding and Roosevelt were two deaths in office which were not assassinations. Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 12 Apr 1945, while Harding died of a probable heart attack coupled with pneumonia (though conspiracies suggested poisoning) on 2 Aug 1923. Harrison’s death was also due to illness (4 Apr 1841), but it was his death that gave rise to the urban legend:
“The phenomenon’s name references Harrison’s pre-presidential military expeditions, in which he defeated Native American tribes led by Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa at the Battle of Tippecanoe. Rumor has it that he was cursed by Tenskwatawa. The purported curse has been criticized as a coincidental pattern, and a 2009 survey of professional historians found no interest in or insight into the curse.”
The assassinations of presidents were as follows: Lincoln (14 Apr 1865), Garfield (19 Sep 1881), McKinley (6 Sep 1901) and Kennedy (22 Nov 1963). With all of these deaths, we will be looking solely at the directions and transits in effect at the dates of the deaths. But we will start with the failed attempts.
The failed assassination attempt on ‘W’ Bush is an interesting study (chart). We find transiting Neptune on the day of the attempt on ‘W’s Mars/Saturn axis, indicating either a mysterious death (the attempt was in the open at a press conference), a grave loss, and/or weakening efforts. The latter was true in his case, as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had ground to a standoff and his poll numbers were declining, having declined to under 50% by that time. The key here is the lack of activations by or to the Ascendant and 8th house or its rulers by directions, save for a directed quincunx to his Sun by the natal Moon/Jupiter conjunction. But we can see the attempt on his life with the transit of Mars quincunx his Ascendant on the day. It just wasn’t his time to go.
Moving on to Reagan, this is another interesting case (chart). We find the directed ‘death axis’ coming just within the 1.5° orb of Reagan’s Jupiter, which in life-or-death situations would indicate an easy transition or an escape from death. As in the case of ‘W’, it was not Reagan’s time. Transiting Jupiter had just come within orb of the square to his Mars. Directed Pluto was in aspect to his natal Mercury (6th, 7th and 9th house rulers), suggesting a possible attack (7th house rules open enemies). But directed Venus was opposite Reagan’s Jupiter (1st house ruler), on his natal North Node/Moon conjunction. His case gets rather more interesting from here.
Reagan’s natal ‘death axis’ was not activated on the day of the assassination attempt, except by a transit of Ceres by sesquisquare. The rulers of his 1st and 8th houses were both activated by directions on the day, and he was shot.
There is a particular midpoint Ebertin alludes to with gunshot, and that is the Uranus/Pluto midpoint, our ‘revolution midpoint’. At the time of Reagan’s being shot, that midpoint was activated by a direction from Saturn: “Exposure to extremely great pressure by others, separation caused through force majeure.” And, the direction and midpoint were triggered by a transit of Mars on the day (pun intended), “Fanaticism, an act of violence, the mania of destruction, a state of precipitation. – “The stage of bending or breaking”. – Injury, accident.” Note that had the activation by Mars been a direction, the result would have been much worse, as directions hold influence for a year or more, whereas transits last only as long as the orb is in effect. For transits of Mars the effect is only a matter of days.
The would-be assassin, John Hinckley, was mentally disturbed and obsessed with Jodie Foster. He attempted to assassinate Reagan to impress her, having been rebuffed or ignored by her time and again. As a side note, referring back to the Chinese, Reagan’s Life Pillar was favourably influenced and supported that year. Next we turn to deaths in office that were not assassinations, but instead due to illness.
In the case of Warren G. Harding it is possible we do not have an accurate birth time. Any birth time on the hours’ quarters can probably be assumed to be rounded off. Indeed, any birth time should be tested as to its veracity as a matter of course. But in Harding’s case we will have a look at the birth time of 14:30 as to his death (bigger chart). As it turns out, his birth time may be quasi-accurate.
We find Harding’s directed Ascendant opposite his natal Sun, with directions to the Sun sometimes indicated in cases of heart problems. In the natal chart we note the Sun within 2° of the Mars/Saturn midpoint (shown in the orange circle), indicating a general weakness in his constitution anyway, along with possible spinal or heart problems later in life. To cap off that combination, transiting Sun and Mars had been activating the directed Ascendant in the days prior to his death, Mars shown in cases of infections and fevers, with the Sun adding to the fire.
Further from the directions and transits to the Sun, we find the natal Mars/Pluto opposition, which forms a powerful midpoint when directed, to the natal Venus, co-ruling Harding’s 8th house and 3rd house. Thus, we have the 8th house active, with the base midpoint seen in cases of medical interventions.
The natal death axis is not activated in Harding’s chart, but his 4th house ruler (Mercury) was stressfully aspected by transiting Neptune, showing weakness of the nervous system. However, the directed death axis was at his natal Neptune, a prime ‘death indicator’ when other factors lean toward that, with the directed Sun having just cleared the exact square to Neptune 6 months prior. The combined influences just described point to general debility, possible toxicity and even a ‘mysterious death’. Doctors at the time of his death were initially unsure as to the causes. The death was ultimately described as heart failure combined with pneumonia.
Moving on to Roosevelt, the other president to die of illness while in office, we find the following factors present (chart). The simple transits and directions (no midpoints) do not clearly show a death, though this is one case where the directed 8th house is involved. Implications of such are present, though. In that vein we find transiting Pluto semisquare the Asc/MC midpoint, activating the Ascendant and the IC. We also find the directed 8th house cusp sitting on the MC, also activating the 4th house, this time by midpoint and by reflex. There are no transits or standard directions (by octal aspects) to Mars. However, there is a direction by quincunx to Mars by the directed Ascendant. The directed Ascendant is opposite natal Pluto and square natal Mercury, the ruler of the Ascendant. From here we get conclusive proof of death.
Both the natal and directed death axes for Roosevelt were activated at the time of his death. The natal death axis received directions of Mars and Neptune, the latter two going to form the Mars/Neptune, or ‘infection axis’, otherwise generally indicating weakness. He died of a massive cerebral haemorrhage. The latter was indicated by the directed death axis to his natal Uranus, “…a sudden accident, separation or case of death.” He had been weakened by his work load leading up to his death.
Roosevelt’s declining health had been kept secret from the public, and his death came as a shock to the nation (Nep=Mars/Sat, “a grievous and grave loss”). The decline in his health came on with force when the Mars/Neptune combination came within orb of the natal death axis, both axes showing debility and weakness. At the time of his death directed Neptune had moved to square his natal 8th house cusp, showing the shielding of the public from his true condition.
William Henry Harrison may have survived had modern medical technology been around in those days. The circumstances of his death were described as follows: “As soon as the doctors placed him in bed and undressed him, they diagnosed him with right lower lobe pneumonia, and placed heated suction cups on his bare body and administered a series of bloodlettings to draw out the disease. He was also administered laudanum, opium, castor oil, camphor with wine and brandy. All this only weakened Harrison further, and the doctors concluded he would not recover.” Basically, if the pneumonia hadn’t killed him, the treatment may have.
With the last highlighted text, we would be looking for Neptune to be involved in his death (poisoning). The combination of disease and treatment most certainly killed him. We don’t have a birth time for Harrison, so we will have to rely on the death axes and prominent directions and transits to see what we can discern. From the previous paragraph, in fact we see transiting Neptune and Saturn in aspect with Harrison’s natal death axis, as well as directions by Mars and Saturn – the latter forming a ‘double-death axis’. Saturn and Neptune in combination point to illness and form the ‘illness axis’ as a midpoint structure. The directed death axis was conjunct natal Mars in Cancer, denoting a possible infection. Cancer rules the lower lobes of the lungs. Overall, the man was definitely strongly debilitated from what we can see. However, in terms of forecasting death definitively, there is little more we could add without a birth time.
From Harrison’s death, we move on to the deaths in office by assassination in Part II and then on to a consideration of what, if anything, shows for Joe Biden as to his finishing office or not. Continue to Part II.
Featured pic from Oxford Medium