N o . 6 The Dynamic Focus of Vocation
The vocation is the next item in the fifteen-point analysis. This is primarily a matter of the planet of “oriental appearance.” he fifteen points of the analysis comprises the ten planets, two nodes of the moon, the Part of Fortune and then two special considerations of when a planet or planets take on an extra role, like now in connection with vocation and later in connection with marriage. The ancients regarded that one of four planets nearest to the sun clockwise from it, was his expression of will or vocation in life.
These four planets are Mercury, Venus, Mars and the Moon . In Teddy’s case, a quick glance at the chart and we see that this Mercury that is in Scorpio 03. It is an indicator that he can do anything that involves an impersonal dynamic — the moving or communicating of things.
The next indication of a person’s vocation is given by the tenth house, that shows one profession or outer aspect in life. For TR this is Scorpio. The essential lord of the tenth is Mars, & in TF’s horoscope, Mars is in the first house where it is exalted in Capricorn, meaning that his business or professional affairs are entirely in his own hands because the absence of planets in the tenth show that there is not any outside interference that he has to consider.
A third consideration is the moon’s placement and it represents the native’s touch with the public. The lesser luminary is in Roosevelt’s seventh house that I call the house of opportunity and it highlights his professional freedom in taking advantage of the various opportunities in shaping his own career via the theory of the “dynamic focus of personality.”
This theory of mine is that if you are successful in life, it is not because it was given to you, or having an easy ride of it, but that you have worked hard and mastered the discipline to obtain it. How you obtain this success is demonstrated by indicated by the closest square or opposition in your chart — it gives you a vocational clue to the greatest challenge you must face.
In Roosevelt’s chart this is the square between Neptune and Jupiter. Neptune came into man’s experience with the social revolution of 1848, meaning that Roosevelt’s success would be with those elements which are in a sense, new — the industrial philosophy or psychology or the electrical age. In America this struggle was dramatized by William Jennings Bryan who advocated American isolationism while Roosevelt gave voice to the transition of America to an international partner.
That the Neptune-Jupiter aspect is a square rather oppositional, indicates that TR’s success was practical rather than theoretical and because Jupiter is the other planet concerned, Roosevelt’s career was an expression of his own stirrings. As these two planets belong to diverse departments, TR’s success was dependent on his own personal originality regenerating the old new.
