U.S. Secretaries of State

[Jim Eshelman]

It occurred to me this morning that all three U.S. Secretaries of State that I've personally met had Libra Suns. (These are three of the last six Secretaries of State.) That got me wondering how far back this trend went.

And the current one, John Kerry, is a Scorpio with a Taurus Moon. Looking further, I noted that (except for Colin Powell) every living U.S. Secretary of State has a Sun on the Venus-Mars axes - that is, in Aries (Baker), Taurus (Kissinger, Albright), Libra (Rice, Clinton, and the late Warren Christopher), or Scorpio (Shultz).

That's a pretty amazing trend IMHO for the chief diplomat of the world.

So, I'm compiling a list of the birth data of all 68 U.S. Secretaries of State (and the 33 Acting SoS). I'll let you know what I find.

[Jim Eshelman]

Idle observation while starting to work with the data: Many men who later became U.S. President served as Secretary of State. Of the six Presidents who had a Sagittarius Moon, every one of them (except, of course, George Washington) served as Secretary of State.

As Sagittarius is the traditional sign of the institutions of international diplomacy, I find this quite interesting.

Of the six (eventual) U.S. Presidents who served in these offices, the trends already observed appear quite consistently. Of the 12 luminary positions of these six men, aside from the five Sagittarius Moons, we find three Aries Suns, one Scorpio Sun, and one Scorpio Moon - five additional luminaries in Mars signs. This only leaves one Gemini and one Pisces Sun.

[Jim Eshelman]

RESULTS:
Although there have been periods when the above-suspected patterns have been true, they have not consistently been true throughout our nation's history. In particular, peace has not always been the foundation of our foreign policy, though the peace-war dynamic has certainly been basic to it.

A total of 66 men and women who have served as U.S. Secretary of State. (John Kerry is the 68th Secretary of State, but two Capricorns - Daniel Webster and James Blaine - served two non-consecutive terms. I've only counted them once each.)

Of these 66 men and women, here are the counts for Sun and Moon in each of the signs.

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Ari		10	11
Tau		 5	 4
Gem		 4	 7
Can		 6	 5
Leo		 1	 4
Vir		 6	 6
Lib		 8	 4
Sco		 5	 3
Sag		 4	 7
Cap		 4	 5
Aqu		 3	 7
Pis		10	 3

There are some fascinating patterns here.

REGARDING THE SUN-SIGNS. Aries and Pisces tie for top marks, and both are likely statistically significant (I haven't done a full probability work-up). Aries is consistent with a diplomatic policy based on strength and force. Pisces seems to be the classic ("old school") face of diplomacy, though "the books" don't suggest it - there is more indirection, shared pleasures (banquets!), schmoozing.

Libra is strong. However it only surpasses the 10-to-1 (0.10) level, not the more desirable 20-to-1 (0.05) level. Notice, though, that Aries and Libra together account for 18 Secretaries of State, whereas about 11 would be expected.

There is only 1 time the Sun was in Leo. This is a significant low. Kings are not necessarily diplomats. And second lowest was Aquarius, with only 3. Leo-Aquarius also would expect about 11 times between them, yet they boast only 4.

Because of these two trends, there are twice as many Rim Suns (28) as Hubs (14).

REGARDING THE MOON SIGN. Again, Aries is the champ, with 11 occurrences. Instead of the 11 expected with these two values, we have 21. Scorpio is the least represented.

The broad trends I recommended at the start tend to be valid during certain periods of history, and are not that far off over the long run. Diplomacy for the largest, most powerful nation on earth is a matter of Mars and Venus energies, with a strong flavor of Jupiter.

The Secretaries of State with an Aries Sun were Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, Henry Clay, James Buchanan, Edward Everett, John Sherman, William R. Day, Philander C. Knox, James F. Byrnes, James Baker. Three later U.S. Presidents are on the list, along with such figures as the indomitable Henry Clay.

The Aries Moons also include some indomitable names. The whole list is: John Marshall. Edward Livingston, John C. Calhoun, James G. Blaine, Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, John Sherman, Philander C. Knox, Cordell Hull, Christian Herter, Edmund Muskie, James Baker.

The Pisces Suns are: James Madison, John C. Calhoun, Walter Q. Gresham, William Jennings Bryan, Charles Evans Hughes, Dean Acheson, Christian Herter, Cyrus Vance, Edmund Muskie, Colin Powell.

The Libra Suns are Robert Smith, John Forsyth, Thomas F. Bayard, Sr., Robert Lansing, Edward Stettinius, Jr., Warren Christopher, Condoleezza Rice, Hillary Rodham Clinton. (Notice that there is a heavy leaning to recent Secretaries.)

[Jim Eshelman]

33 times, the United States had an Acting Secretary of State in the interim between two lawfully appointed and approved Secretaries.

For five of these, we don't have any birth data beyond a year of birth. (If anyone wants to research these, the men are: Charles Lee 1758, John Graham 1774, Daniel Brent 1770, William S. Derrick 1802, William Hunter 1905

Five of these occasions were duplications. I've ruled those out.

This leaves 23 Acting Secretaries of States for whom we have a birth date. Please note that these men are characteristically different, in many respects, from the appointed and approved Secretaries. Most were long-term career public servants, often charged with important duties in the State Department, but rarely as the nation's chief diplomat. (The Secretary of State is also often considered the most powerful office in America after the President - note the discussion on the full Secretaries above.) The Acting Secretaries served for as little as 1 day - many served for less than a week - and few served for as long as a month as Acting SoS. They were a very different type.

In general, there were just a couple per sign. Small little patterns are discernible. For example, the near total absence of any Leo representation in the SoS list is contrasted to three Leo Suns in the Acting List (two of whom were double Leos, and the other a Leo-Aries). Four of the 23 had a Sagittarius Sun, which I take as indicative of career international diplomats. (I didn't look up those four to confirm that this was their story. They are: Hugh S. Legaré, John Nelson, Charles M. Conrad, and the twice-serving David D. Newsom. We also find three Taurians, in contrast to the near absence of Taurus Suns in the full Secretaries.

For the Moon, we add 3 more Aries Moons to an already bulging list, three Gemini Moons (which fleshes out a trend that started for form in Secretaries early in the nation's history, and then dried up), and a startling four Leo Moons (as many as were in the 4x as large Sec list).

These 23 names for which we have birth data bring the Secretary list up to 89. This isn't enough of an addition to totally distort the original findings, but it does start to alter the picture a little.

With some variation for solar speed, the Sun spends approximately 1/12 of the time in each sign (and the Moon spends exactly 1/12 of the time in each). For 89 samples, this gives an average mean expectancy of 7.4 per sign. With (again, using the mean for now) a standard deviation of 2.61, the 5% (20-to-1 odds ) level is reached 5.11 from the mean; that is, 2 or less per sign, or at least 13.

This is nearly reached by the Aries Sun at 12 (for the combined list). It is fully realized in the 14 Aries Moons.

The combined totals of the Sun and Moon in each sign for the combined list are:

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Ari		12	14
Tau		 8	 4
Gem		 6	10
Can		 8	 6
Leo		 4	 8
Vir		 6	 8
Lib		 8	 5
Sco		 7	 4
Sag		 8	 9
Cap		 6	 7
Aqu		 5	 9
Pis		11	 5

[Jim Eshelman]

New Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is a Pisces-Aquarius. Both of these are heavily-represented positions from the past.

With his Pisces Sun, Tillerson breaks the recent history of Venus-Mars axis secretaries (Aries-Libra and Taurus-Scorpio). The one recent interruption in that pattern, though, was also a Pisces, Colin Powell. Other Pisces Sun secretaries of state have included some important ones like James Madison, John C. Calhouc, William Jennings Bryan, Dean Acheson, etc. (a dozen in all, tying Aries for first place).

His Moon is in Aquarius, which ties Gemini for second place with 10 each (Aries has 14). Besides recent secretaries like Hillary Clinton and Warren Christopher, the list also includes Williamn Jennings Bryan - so he and Tillerson are in the same 144th of he population - the strange Alexander Haig, and others.