by Robert Wilkinson
Today we'll take a happy birthday look at the horoscope of "the most trusted name in fake news," host of The Daily Show, Mr. Jon Stewart. Originally born as Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz, he dropped his last name for all kinds of reasons, though it reverberates to this day through the "Leibo," an award given by his college soccer team to the person who provides the team with the most laughs. And he has actually changed his last name to Stewart, so no, it's not a spelling error. This comedic genius was born on November 28, 1962, in New York City, despite the many bios that have him born in New Jersey, which is where he never grew up despite spending years in the toxic dump capital of the US.
His chart shows he has both Sun and Moon in Sagittarius, as well as Mercury. This is an instinctive joker whose mind is all over the place usually at the same time, friendly and quick and sharply aware of the absurdities and ironies of life. These usually indicate a master wit and a man who can giggle at opportune as well as inopportune moments. He's not merely of two minds about things - he's of many minds about everything, all at once, whose initial insights mean more than his final ones, despite all the lingering vagueness he has to contend with due to knowing more than he can ever put into words.
He should always hold to his conception of things, except perhaps when he gets insecure around his likes and dislikes. To Jon, all of life is a series of grand experiments in an improvised lab, with explosions and breakthroughs always just around the bend. He's very clever in outwitting his opponents, and is a genuine benefactor of humanity, despite the ongoing circus of perceptual absurdities that parade across his radar screen.
With Venus retrograde in Scorpio conjunct Neptune he can be possessive, insecure, and even secretive, even though he covers it up fairly well with his Mars in flamboyant Leo and his deeply compassionate and intuitive Jupiter in Pisces. This is a man who was once a puppeteer for children with disabilities, a talent he has transferred to the Daily Show, where he continues to be the perfect puppeteer for learning challenged childish politicians who need someone to help them move their hands, feet, and mouths in ways that are healthy for the populace at large. He also has a genius for showing us how puppet-like they are, and hosting those who know that we ARE supposed to "pay attention to the man behind the curtain."
He feels more deeply than he lets on, and wonders why people do or don't like what they do. He also knows things he doesn't know how he knows, and has had to master discouragement through the interchanges of spirit and understanding that brought him to a greater sense of himself within whatever groups are lucky enough to get his wry, self-effacing humor. Saturn in Aquarius shows his detachment will come forth as he attains power and position, and with it in favorable sextile to his Sun and Mercury, his life will get better as he gets older. His challenge is to keep the momentum in his own hands as he continues to find a dramatic form of self-exhibition that enables him to be himself while living his higher purpose. He certainly has found this more through The Daily Show than he ever did as an actor.
With Sun square Uranus he's a genius who occasionally explodes sideways, and needs to learn how to allow more cooperation between parts of his life that don't fit well together. Of this aspect it has been said, "You tend to think you're right and the rest of the world is crazy, which may be right but doesn't make much of a hit with the world." Good that he turned his genius to humor rather than acting, which reminds me of something another genius named Wavy Gravy once said, that "If you don't have a sense of humor it's not funny." A true progressive, he's had his share of ups and downs and developed his edge at a very young age. He also has never been fooled by the authorities around him, and is like the kid who pointed out that "the emperor has no clothes," which probably made the adults of his life more than a little uncomfortable as they fired him from the mundane world.
Sometimes he gets lost in daydreaming when he should be actively accomplishing something, and procrastinates until he leaps before he looks. There is not much Earth element in his chart, showing he gets ungrounded, but he has a powerful drive that can accomplish great things once he gets oriented. It's all about not exploding sideways, as I mentioned before.
With a powerful Jupiter opposed to Uranus and Pluto, all T-squared by the Sun and Mercury, he has had to learn good juggling skills so that he doesn't fumble the great truths he glimpses as he finds his way to a greater self assurance in the midst of the turmoil constantly surrounding him. It clearly indicates he needs to move from anticipating things to actual accomplishments, and ignore other people's sense of limitation while he pushes through to his conception of what could be, despite the confusion around him. Sometime he gets lost in side issues and irrelevant controversies, but he has a great talent for persuading others to his conception of things by seeing it through their eyes and then working them back to his view.
He has a powerful creative streak, but the intensity of his feelings have led him down some strange pathways in life. When young, he played some hunches about people based in first impressions which turned out "woefully wrong," due to his attraction to unusual and odd traits in others. Thank heaven he's obviously outgrown that, and now just interviews unusual and odd creatures on his show, as well as lets them do standup commentary on the unusual and odd creatures inhabiting our nation's capitol.
Family issues have predominated 2005, while he's going through a major shift in his values, resources, relationships, and ways of being with others in 2006. The coming year is a "mutant" year for him, with things emerging out of "the great unrealized." In 2006 he cuts loose from the known and familiar, and will go from introvert to extrovert, from insecure and protective to dramatically out there, take a new look at his duties and responsibilities, and walk on into a new world of experience. Saturn opposed his Saturn is a point of major shift, leaving behind some things while accepting what has evolved as a result of the choices he made in 1991-1992. His life is in a peculiar revolutionary phase, with some things blowing up forever even as he becomes more efficient in moving into new, unknown areas.
Aquarius will be an important sign for him in the coming year, and he'll find a grand sweetness in the midst of swirling, shifting tides in his outer life. Money and communications will predominate this year, as will the need to feel like he has others close at hand. At the same time, he's already begun to rewrite his address book and end relationships that have become more trouble than they're worth, which will continue through July 2006.
Jupiter on his Venus is opening him to a deeper and wider reality induced by the women in his life. He'll no doubt find some great opportunities with and through women in the coming year. Overall, 2006 will bring forth things he's never dreamed of before, and while some of it will be intensely difficult, he'll just have to assert the deeper, more subtle aspects of his personality so he can take advantage of chances to mutate and not get jockeyed out of perfectly good opportunities to bounce all over the map.
His progressed Mercury is about to go retrograde conjunct his natal Saturn, which will bring forth his ability to take advantage of useful but overlooked details to complete others' understanding. He'll begin to develop more non-verbal communication skills, and may wind up hopscotching all over the place before he leads us to where he didn't know he was going to begin with, or where he knew he was going but didn't know how he was going to get there. Welcome to Mercury retrograde, Jon! We all get to live there sometime in our lives unless we're on Mars, in which case nothing gets done while implosions from the past echo our data in an endless loop of aggravation. 2005 was the beginning, 2006 will show you the rules of the game, and by this time next year you'll be riding a 100 foot tsunami into a greater adventure than you've ever known. Happy birthday, Jon. We love you!
I know this article is from last year but what a great interpretation! I love the 'fake news' and his wit keeps me laughing every day at lunchtime. I had a hunch that he had some truly unique placements things going on in his chart.
Sincerely,
Don 06'
Posted by: Don | April 25, 2006 at 05:15 PM
Robert,
Are you the Robert Wilkerson who once lived in Charlotte, NC, across the street from Doug Cowan from Toronto? If you are that RW, I once came to you for a reading in Charlotte. I am now living in the SFrancisco area.
Julia White
Posted by: julia white | February 16, 2010 at 07:18 PM
Hi Julia - No, that's "the other" Robert Wilkinson who is also a professional astrologer and spiritual scholar! He's a specialist in Vedic with knowledge of Western, I'm a specialist in Western with knowledge of Chinese! And it seems we've both studied many elements of the Ageless Wisdom! Over the years many of his clients have contacted me just as you have. In any case, glad you found your way to the Aquarius Papers! As an aside, I loved the Bay Area when I lived there several years ago, and have many clients and fans of the site living there.
Posted by: Robert | February 19, 2010 at 01:51 PM