November 2014 Profile: Teddy Roosevelt

November 2014 Profile: President Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt, Jr.

Born: October 27, 1958 in New York City at 7:45pm

Died: January 6, 1919 in Cove Neck, NY

Energy Type: Emotional Manifestor

Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., our 26th U.S. President, was a larger-than-life Emotional Manifestor who lived a full life with gusto, imagination and a vision of progress for the still relatively new United States of America. He said early on that he wanted to be part of the ruling class and he was. Granted, he was born into wealth, which always makes things a bit easier, but so were a lot of people of his day and even in his own vast family. Teddy was a Manifestor from the start: a little weak from severe asthma, he was home-schooled and found a multitude of subjects to excel in, calling his room the “Roosevelt Museum of Natural History” because of his fascination with animals, insects and birds. His natural ability and love of writing started when he was nine, with a paper called “The Natural History of Insects”.
“The Roosevelts: An Intimate History” on local PBS channels recently, which was produced by Ken Burns, provided a broad overview and yet intimate details about each of the most famous Roosevelts: Teddy, FDR and Eleanor. It was fascinating, and one could see Teddy in action as he rose from an education at Harvard, to politics in New York State and City, and onward to be the Vice President under McKinley. At the age of 42, he was sworn in as President when McKinley was assassinated, the youngest president at the time. In typical Manifestor form, he stepped into the job without hesitation and with a good amount of grace as the country healed from such a sudden tragedy. Roosevelt knew about tragedy personally: his beloved father died suddenly while he was at Harvard, and in 1884, his first wife, Alice, died of kidney failure two days after giving birth to their first child, while his mother died of typhoid fever in the same house on the same day. Talk about tragic circumstances! He went back to work at the State Senate quickly afterward, but then took an extended sabbatical in the West, leaving his infant daughter with his sister. Two things in his chart point to these occurrences: He has the Gate 28 (Struggle) and the Gate 22 (Grace), so he could be withstand the struggles with grace and charm.

Roosevelt has two channels in his chart that indicate the themes of his life: The Channel of Agreements or Community (37-40) between the Will Center and the Solar Plexus; and the Channel of Transitoriness (35-36) between the Throat and the Solar Plexus. That’s it! That leaves a lot of openness in his chart, which means that as energetic as he was – he called it living “the Strenuous Life” – he took in a lot of other people’s energies, too. As with most people who are that open, he likely thought it WAS his energy, and used the energy as if it was his! That would explain his need to be with others much of the time, but his personality as the Manifestor explains his need to be the leader of those he joined up with. It’s actually interesting to see how, in many instances throughout his life, he would join an organization, and then wind up as its leader – even in the instance of becoming President unexpectedly.

His profile is the 3/5 Martyr Heretic, which fits him perfectly. In addition to having the Gate 53 (Starting Things), he was always in the thick of experimenting with some new idea as the Experiential Learner that the Martyr is. He tried and excelled at many things; but he also tried and failed at a number of things. His health always held him back a little – and he never would have the full energy of a Generator, for example, since his Sacral is open as a Manifestor. But he took in the energy from others and amplified it.

As for the Heretic, he had many ideas as a Progressive leader of the Republican party that didn’t sit well with other Republicans of the time. He fought hard for conservation of public lands, anti-trust legislation, and the poor, including immigrants. Those were not popular notions and yet over time, he was able to pass legislation for many of his ideas, and at the very least, make his ideas known through daily press conferences, which was in itself a brand new idea. He innately knew that his ideas would be heard and assimilated eventually, but that an education of the public was necessary for this to happen organically. He had a charming way of getting the public on his side, even when many of the politicians weren’t. His Gate 29 (Commitment) and the Gate 26 (Integrity) always won out in the end, so that he was considered to be committed to America above all and that for a while, he was the most trustworthy politician in the land.

After Roosevelt left the Presidency in 1909, while still only 51 years old, he continued his adventures in the political background while following real-life escapades on safaris in Africa with the Museum of Natural History, a South American expedition to chart the course of the River of Doubt for 625 miles, and even as a volunteer in World War I in 1917. And he wrote 18 books (some still in print today) over the course of his lifetime, as well as being a veteran, a cowboy and an editor. The activities and level of daring can only be a combination of some of his gates: Gate 35 (Change/Jack of all Trades); Gate 45 (Gate of the King); Gate 31 (Influence); Gate 27 (Responsibility); Gate 54 (Ambition) and finally, the one that starts it all: Gate 41 (Fantasy), from which all his creative thinking sprung!

This widely-quoted section of a speech aptly sums up the philosophy of Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., and was delivered in a speech he gave at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1910:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”