All our thoughts work to assign values to whatever occurs in our world and then to use that information to develop ourselves, to change things.

“What does it all mean?” we ask so often. “Why is this as it is?”

A client recently inquired most earnestly “Why do I argue and debate so easily, so often, about religion, about politics? Why is this so important to me? I wear myself out. I get into trouble. There’s so much tension.”
My reply was, “Let’s look at the rewards … at what you get out of the fighting. Let’s see if you can get those rewards in other ways, in ways that are not so upsetting.”

His was a question about values, not necessarily actions. My client was asking “What was the meaning of these behaviors?”

The pattern of the behaviors, the birth of the rewards lay in his past: to gain control of intellectual situations (read slowly and see it: Saturn-Sun in Scorpio; Pluto-Jupiter squaring the Sun) to establish his self-worth profile (Sun ruling the 2nd).

Reward Needs During the consultation, we must think strongly of the reward needs our client has. The gentleman in this case has Jupiter in Virgo: the reward-need to be correct, to be right. The fact that this Jupiter was tied to Pluto introduced government issues; brought debate into the arena of battle.

George W. Bush has Jupiter in Libra conjunct the Moon: a gigantic need to be popular. –And we can just imagine how deeply painful his present and historical UNpopularity is. –Bill Clinton has Jupiter in Libra as well. The vanity of these two presidents is most certainly sky-high.

Barack Obama has Jupiter in Aquarius opposed Mercury: here is a reward-need to be articulated in humanitarian terms, in helping the less fortunate.

Hillary Clinton has Jupiter in Sagittarius, and Jupiter is unaspected (peregrine): the indomitable need to have her opinions respected.

John McCain also has Jupiter in Sagittarius, ruling the 3rd: his reward-needs are to have his opinions respected, to be the avuncular, experienced truth-sayer.

Napoleon, Muhammed Ali, Al Capone, Arnold Schwarzenneger, Mitt Romney find the rewards of Jupiter in Scorpio through fanatical belief in Self, the feeling of invulnerability through a broad spectrum of life experience.

Abraham Lincoln had Jupiter in Pisces peregrine, ruling his Midheaven, suggesting the fulfillment of compassion and idealization as his reward-needs. Pope Benedict XVI also has Jupiter in Pisces.

With Jupiter in Capricorn, reward-needs are for things to be just right in the way they are set up to transpire: Hitler, Nixon.

Comedienne Phyllis Diller and Jackie Kennedy-Onassis have Jupiter in Gemini suggesting a reward-need to be seen as sparkling and entertaining.

Nelson Mandela has Jupiter in Cancer, conjoined with Pluto (government), suggesting reward needs involved with caring, helping, affording security on a grand scale.

Robert de Niro has Jupiter in Leo, suggesting reward needs about being appreciated and thought theatrically important.

Lee Harvey Oswald had Jupiter in Aries, opposed by Neptune, certainly a reward need for personal recognition and importance. Tom Brokaw also has Jupiter in Aries.

Bob Dylan, with Jupiter in Taurus: structuring what could be ideal. Astrology scholar Nicholas Campion also has Jupiter in Taurus, a reward need fulfilled by ideal organization, everything in its structured place.

Final Note: In Campion’s masterful study of the origins of astrology through the occurrence of religion, magic, and science (The Dawn of Astrology), he states so simply one of the primal considerations of humanness: “Human beings can not function without meaning” (page 5). From our first presence in time, we have had the intrinsic need to explain all things, from the daily eternal risings of the sun to natural cataclysm.

Human beings seek out meanings of happenings and things that will favor their position; that will establish as many positive values as possible. This human need courses throughout the horoscope and throughout life behavior. It should have a high degree of awareness within the consultation.