{"id":223815,"date":"2021-04-10T15:23:01","date_gmt":"2021-04-10T12:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/how-nancy-reagan-let-her-astrologer-control-the-presidency\/"},"modified":"2021-04-10T15:23:01","modified_gmt":"2021-04-10T12:23:01","slug":"how-nancy-reagan-let-her-astrologer-control-the-presidency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-nancy-reagan-let-her-astrologer-control-the-presidency\/","title":{"rendered":"#How Nancy Reagan let her astrologer control the presidency"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#How Nancy Reagan let her astrologer control the presidency<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

Days after a bullet pierced the body of President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981, his distraught wife Nancy got a call from longtime Hollywood friend Merv Griffin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The TV host told the first lady that star charts drawn by San Francisco astrologer Joan Quigley, a mutual acquaintance, had pinpointed March 30 as a dangerous day for her husband.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, my God,\u201d Nancy gasped. \u201cI could have stopped it!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNancy was thunderstruck,\u201d writes Karen Tumulty in \u201cThe Triumph of Nancy Reagan<\/a>\u201d (Simon & Schuster), out Tuesday. \u201cShe hung up on him and immedia<\/a>tely dialed Quigley.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c \u2018I\u2019m so scared \u2026 somebody is going to shoot at him again,\u2019 \u201d she told the astrologer tearfully.<\/p>\n

And so began the most closely guarded secret of the Reagan White House \u2014 the soothsayer and her seven-year grip on the president\u2019s public activities, until a vengeful ex-aide revealed it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When a gunman attacked Reagan just 10 weeks into his presidency, the public was told he had escaped serious harm. The shooting nearly killed press secretary James Brady and badly wounded a local police officer and a Secret Service agent, but reports from the hospital focused resolutely on Reagan\u2019s high spirits and good humor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Ronald
Ronald Reagan was just 10 weeks into his presidency when a gunman put a bullet in his body. As doctors later tried to save his life, he told his wife, \u201cI forgot to duck.\u201d<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHoney, I forgot to duck,\u201d he quipped when Nancy arrived at his side at George Washington University Hospital. He joked with his emergency room doctors, too \u2014 \u201cI hope you are all Republicans,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Nancy knew the truth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDoctors believe bleeding to death,\u201d read deputy press secretary Larry Speakes\u2019 notes, scribbled frantically in the trauma bay.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCan\u2019t find a wound. \u2018Think we\u2019re going to lose him.\u2019 Rapid loss of blood pressure. Touch and go.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNot until they cut off his clothes \u2026 did they notice a tiny, jagged slit in [Reagan\u2019s] side,\u201d Tumulty writes. \u201cAn intern who had been in Vietnam recognized it as a bullet hole. There was no exit wound.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

After three hours of surgery, doctors found the slug \u2014 lodged in Reagan\u2019s left lung, one inch from his heart.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Throughout, Deputy Chief of Staff Michael Deaver sat vigil with the first lady. A loyal aide since Reagan\u2019s first term as governor of California 15 years before, Deaver \u201cwas the closest of friends to both Ronnie and me and \u2026 like a son to Ronnie,\u201d Nancy once said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As he finally emerged from anesthesia, there were no quips from the president.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI am alive, aren\u2019t I?\u201d Reagan asked White House physician Daniel Ruge in a feebly handwritten note.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"While
While dismounting off her horse at their ranch, Nancy would always jump into Ronald\u2019s arms.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The gunman, John Hinckley Jr., was caught immediately, and 12 days after he was shot, Reagan returned to the White House. At the end of April, he addressed a joint session of Congress and was interrupted by bipartisan ovations 14 times.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the near-death experience changed him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe saw a divine hand in the fact that he had been spared, which made him more convinced than ever that there was a purpose at work in his presidency,\u201d Tumulty writes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But it had the opposite effect on Nancy, who \u201ccould not escape her darkness.\u201d The fear of another attack on her husband was paralyzing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought for a while it was something that in time would fade away,\u201d she told Parade magazine in late 1981. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t. It\u2019s a particular kind of trauma that never leaves you once you\u2019ve known it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nancy\u2019s anxiety left her open to Quigley\u2019s influence. And Reagan\u2019s besotted bond with his wife forced him to play along.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They were \u201ctwo halves of a circle, closed tight around a world in which their love for each other was the only sustenance they needed,\u201d their daughter Patti said in 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one truly crossed the boundary.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Nancy's
Nancy\u2019s fears for her husband\u2019s safety led her to consult astrologer Joan Quigley.<\/figcaption>
Bettmann Archive; AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Theirs was literally a Hollywood romance. Nancy, daughter of a footloose stage actress, had won a movie-studio contract on the strength of her mother\u2019s connections. Reagan, the star of movies<\/a> like \u201cKings Row\u201d and \u201cKnute Rockne, All American\u201d whose career as a leading man was fading, had discovered a passion for politics as president of the Screen Actors Guild. But his new interest helped end his marriage to actress Jane Wyman, who hated politics so much it drove her to file for divorce in 1948.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nancy Davis, 28 when she met the 38-year-old Reagan in 1949, always insisted that they came together by happ<\/a>enstance in his capacity as SAG president \u2014 but Tumulty uncovers evidence that she had been scheming for months to snag him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both craved stability. They found it in each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They called one another \u201cMommie\u201d and \u201cDaddy\u201d almost from the start of their marriage in 1952 \u2014 when she was, as she admitted many years later, already two months pregnant with their daughter Patti \u2014 and maintained dozens of shared rituals. Reagan never boarded an airplane without his \u201clucky cuff links\u201d \u2014 miniature gold calendar pages that marked their wedding date with purple stones. When they rode horses at their California ranch, Nancy remained in the saddle until Reagan dismounted, then leaped into his waiting arms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like I was a kid watching a sister necking on the couch with her boyfriend,\u201d White House doctor John Hutton admitted to Tumulty as he described the frequent display.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018If it makes you feel better, go ahead and do it. But it might look a little odd if it ever came out.\u2019<\/p>\n

Ronald Reagan to wife Nancy, on her use of astrology<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

But perceptive aides knew she was also her husband\u2019s most potent weapon. Campaign consultant Stu Spencer saw that the serenely aloof Reagan was \u201callergic to interpersonal conflict\u201d \u2014 and that Nancy \u201cwas going to be the bad guy\u201d who kept the troops loyal to his agenda as he was elected governor of California in 1966 and then president in 1980.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Deaver\u2019s first job with Reagan in 1967 was on what fellow aides called \u201cMommie Watch\u201d \u2014 fielding Nancy\u2019s constant questions and commands.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSoon we were huddling over [Reagan\u2019s] scheduling, politics, the press, speeches,\u201d he later recalled. \u201cNancy proved to be a shrewd political player in her own right.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a woman who loves her husband,\u201d she once said simply in a speech. \u201cAnd I make no apologies for looking out for his personal and political welfare.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

By 1981, Nancy was convinced, Joan Quigley held the key to both.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After their phone call, Quigley agreed to give the first lady regular readings on her husband\u2019s future \u2014 for a price.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe astrologer insisted she be paid by the hour, with a $3,000-a-month retainer,\u201d Tumulty writes, nearly $9,000 in today\u2019s dollars.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Vassar-educated Quigley grew up in San Francisco\u2019s exclusive Nob Hill neighborhood, the daughter of a local hotel owner. She had published two books on astrology and was a frequent guest on Griffin\u2019s TV talk show. With her socialite\u2019s sensibilities and a therapist\u2019s ear, she quickly built a rapport with the first lady.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Aide
Aide Michael Deaver insisted on bizarre scheduling to satisfy the White House astrologer.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The two spoke on weekends, when the Reagans usually relaxed at Camp David. Nancy gave Quigley the president\u2019s proposed schedules \u2014 a stunning security breach \u2014 and the astrologer designated good and bad days for travel<\/a> and public events. Soon she was weighing in on political questions, too, like the most auspicious date for a State of the Union address.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The arrangement \u201cbegan as a crutch,\u201d Nancy wrote in her 1989 memoir. \u201cWithin a year or two, it had become a habit.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

One aide, William Henkel, said that Quigley\u2019s advice sometimes ranged beyond the calendar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 1985, when Mikhail Gorbachev rose to power in the Soviet Union, Nancy had Quigley run his natal chart and compare it to her husband\u2019s, Henkel said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe came back saying \u2026 these two have, by the stars, some good vibes,\u201d he recalled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Quigley tallied a monthly bill and sent it to the first lady via a little-known private ZIP code that, Tumulty reports, routes personal correspondence straight to the presidential residence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A California confidante \u2014 Nancy never revealed who \u2014 paid the bills on the first lady\u2019s behalf, which she later reimbursed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cChecks to an astrologer signed by a first lady created an obvious potential for embarrassment,\u201d Tumulty notes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the first lady could not enforce Quigley\u2019s edicts on her own. For that, she needed an Oval Office accomplice: surrogate son Michael Deaver, one of the three close Reagan advisers who formed the president\u2019s power-sharing \u201ctroika.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chief of staff James Baker just looked the other way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we wanted to schedule a big thing like a press conference, he\u2019d say, \u2018Let me take a look at it,\u2019\u2009\u201d Baker told Tumulty.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Chief
Chief of Staff James Baker looked the other way when it came to Nancy\u2019s interest in astrology.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThen we figured [Deaver and Nancy] would talk about the date. Now it\u2019s clear that they were clearing it all with her, with the astrologist.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was months before Nancy told her husband what she was up to. As in most things, he indulged her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it makes you feel better, go ahead and do it,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it might look a little odd if it ever came out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Deaver bore the brunt of Quigley\u2019s sometimes bizarre instructions, giving him a reputation as an indecisive crank.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDeaver would dither \u2026 and then insist, for example, that the president\u2019s plane take off for a foreign trip at precisely 2:11 a.m.,\u201d Tumulty writes. \u201cHe concocted stories to tell the traveling press \u2026 A predawn takeoff? It was deemed to have been dictated by medical advice on how to avoid jet lag.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWho was I to tell [Nancy] it was a bad idea when she was convinced the well-being of her husband was at stake?\u201d Deaver asked in his autobiography.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Deaver prepared to leave the administration after Reagan\u2019s re-election in 1984, he finally had to share the secret. He invited Henkel, the White House chief of scheduling, to his office and poured him a stiff drink.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Henkel \u201cwas flabbergasted,\u201d he told Tumulty years later.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHoly sh-t, Mike!\u201d he spluttered. \u201cI thought you were a madman. I can\u2019t believe you had to do this!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet Nancy managed to convince Henkel, too, of her need for Quigley\u2019s guidance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBill, I want you to understand and feel what it was like,\u201d she told him. \u201cI saw six doctors with panic in their eyes. My naked husband \u2026 I knew he was dying.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Bad
Bad blood between Nancy and Chief of Staff Donald Regan led him to spill the beans on her bizarre obsession with the zodiac.<\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Reagan\u2019s second term also brought a new chief of staff: Treasury Secretary Donald Regan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Regan and the first lady took an instant dislike to one another.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not the chief of staff of the first lady,\u201d he railed after getting one too many of her phone calls.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDon thought he was the president,\u201d Nancy later complained to Washington-based journalist James Mann in 2005.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Regan\u2019s contempt grew when he learned the secret of the president\u2019s schedule \u2014 \u201cthe single most potent tool in the White House,\u201d he believed. He seethed as he marked his desk calendar with traffic-signal shades of red, green and yellow based on Quigley\u2019s star charts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After two years of tension, Nancy engineered Regan\u2019s ouster amid the fallout of the Iran-Contra scandal. But in 1988, with only eight months to go in his old boss\u2019 term, Regan took revenge with \u201cFor the Record,\u201d a million-dollar tell-all that revealed Quigley\u2019s hidden influence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
\"The<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The shocking story sparked headlines around the globe and became \u201cthe most mortifying chapter of Nancy\u2019s years as first lady \u2014 almost too wacky to be possible,\u201d Tumulty writes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Regan had not named Quigley in his book, but reporters soon sniffed her out, and she eagerly told her story. Later, she cashed in with a memoir, \u201cWhat Does Joan Say?: My Seven Years as White House Astrologer to Nancy and Ronald Reagan<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The White House tried in vain to brush off the controversy. Spokesman Marlin Fitzwater made light of it as he opened his May 4 press briefing \u2014 joking, \u201cI\u2019ll take your first question at exactly 12:33 and a half,\u2019\u2019 The New York Times reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s true that Mrs. Reagan has an interest in astrology,\u201d Fitzwater said. \u201cShe has for some time, particularly following the assassination attempt in March of 1981. She was very concerned for her husband\u2019s welfare.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

At a photo op that day, Reagan fended off the question. \u201cNo policy or decision in my mind has ever been influenced by astrology,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The president\u2019s reputation didn\u2019t suffer, but Nancy would never truly recover from the situation. Johnny Carson turned it into a regular \u201cTonight Show\u201d gag, joking that \u201cthe house of Adolfo\u201d was Nancy\u2019s zodiac sign.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEach person has his own ways of coping with trauma and grief,\u201d the first lady confessed in her 1989 memoir.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis helped me. Nobody was hurt by it \u2014 except, possibly, me.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#How Nancy Reagan let her astrologer control the presidency” Days after a bullet pierced the body of President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981, his distraught wife Nancy got a call from longtime Hollywood friend Merv Griffin.\u00a0 The TV host told the first lady that star charts drawn by San Francisco astrologer Joan Quigley, a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":223816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/Stars-in-Her-Eyes-Nancy-Reagan.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[77011,101576,48554,42873],"class_list":["post-223815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-astrology","tag-nancy-reagan","tag-ronald-reagan","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}