Jimmy Carter

When Jimmy Carter left the White House in 1981 after losing reelection, many people considered his presidency a failure. He went on to have what is widely regarded as the most productive post-presidency in American history. The Carter Center, which he founded in 1982, monitored elections around the world, mediated conflicts and led a campaign against Guinea worm disease that reduced cases from millions a year to a handful. He built houses with Habitat for Humanity well into his nineties, and in 2002 he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

His chart describes a man whose deepest work was done out of the spotlight. He was born at 7:00 a.m. on October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, a time written on his birth record, which is held at his presidential library, and his Sun is in Libra in the twelfth house, with Mercury in Virgo beside it. Libra is the sign of peace, justice and diplomacy; the twelfth is the house of service, sacrifice and work done behind the scenes. A Libra Sun in the twelfth is close to a description of a quiet peacemaker, and Carter's most lasting achievements were often negotiated away from cameras.

Libra is also rising, so the same sign shapes his public face: courteous, conciliatory and unthreatening, the smiling Georgia peanut farmer who ran for president promising never to lie to the American people. Saturn at the start of Scorpio sits in the first house too, adding a stern, disciplined, sometimes rigid streak beneath the smile, and critics in Washington often found him stubborn and moralistic.

He grew up on a farm in rural Georgia, the first president born in a hospital, and attended the U.S. Naval Academy. He served in the Navy's nuclear submarine program before returning to run the family peanut business when his father died. He became governor of Georgia in 1971 and, as an outsider after Watergate, won the presidency in 1976.

His greatest success in office was the Camp David Accords in 1978, when he spent thirteen days with Egypt's Anwar Sadat and Israel's Menachem Begin at the presidential retreat and brokered a peace agreement between their countries that has held since. The administration was also beset by inflation, an energy crisis and the Iran hostage crisis, which dominated his final year.

His Moon is in Scorpio in the second house, which deals with values and resources. Scorpio Moons are intense and loyal and keep their commitments for life. He and Rosalynn Carter were married for 77 years, the longest presidential marriage in American history, until her death in 2023.

Jupiter in Sagittarius in the third house points to a life of teaching and preaching. For decades he taught Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, and he wrote more than thirty books. He died on December 29, 2024, at 100, the longest-lived president, and the twelfth-house Libra Sun had spent four decades proving that the work after the presidency could matter more than the presidency itself.