“Virtually every major move and decision the Reagans made during my time as White House Chief of Staff was cleared in advance with this woman in San Francisco who drew up horoscopes to make certain that the planets were in a favorable alignment for the enterprise…”
- Don Regan, former chief of staff in the Reagan administration
Having a wizard, alchemist, astrologer, etc. as a political advisor is one of the oldest traditions. But much more recently, a woman named Joan Quigley acted as a secret astrologer to the Reagans in the 1980’s.
I say “secret” partly because it sounds cool, but mostly because the Reagans were supposedly terrified of the public learning about her role.
From a young age, Joan Quigley was fascinated by charting the stars and planets. She reveled in what she considered the “scientific” practice of making precise, mathematical calculations.
She became a working astrologer, contributing a horoscope to Seventeen magazine, and worked frequently with Merv Griffin.
Don Regan was Reagan’s chief of staff (sorry, so many Regan/Reagans) and is the one who “outed” all of this information in his memoir, along with Quigley herself.
He says Quigley had worked with Reagan on his earlier campaign for governor.
“Reagan delayed his inauguration by nine minutes, until 12:10 a.m. on Jan. 2, 1967, on the astrological advice of Miss Quigley,”
- The New York Times, referring to Regan’s statements.
Her relationship with Ronald and Nancy Reagan really took off after the assassination attempt on President Reagan. Nancy was determined to do whatever she could to protect her husband and began regularly consulting with Quigley.
Regan says that Quigley’s guidance would result in a calendar for the administration which looked like this:
Jan 16–23 very bad
Jan 20 nothing outside the WH—possible attempt
Feb 20–26 be careful
March 7–14 bad period
March 10–14 no outside activity
March 16 very bad
March 21 no
March 27 no
March 12–19 no trips exposure
March 19–25 no public exposure
April 1 careful
April 11 careful
April 17 careful
April 21–28 stay home(From the Paris Review)
Before Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev met at the Geneva Summit in 1985, Quigley says she told the first lady that “Gorbachev’s Aquarian planet is in such harmony with Ronnie’s, you’ll see … They’ll share a vision,”
Memoir Wars
Then came the memoir wars (mem-wars?). A lot of this information came from Don Regan’s 1988 memoir, For the Record, about his time as White House Chief of Staff.
Then, in 1989, Nancy Reagan’s memoir came out, called My Turn. In her book, she elaborated on the astrology rumors but also downplayed Quigley’s role.
And in 1990, Joan Quigley published her memoir, which was called What does Joan Say? In this book, Quigley confirms what Regan wrote about her significant role in important matters at the White House.
For obvious reasons the Reagans clearly didn’t want the public to believe that they consulted an astrologer in affairs of the state, so in the end, Quigley believes she was betrayed, and will be the only one who will never get credit for her role in the administration.
- Joe
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