Ron Reagan has the best and worst of a plentiful astral and family situation, with a splash chart showing multiple talents in many areas but two T-crosses tying up much of that talent in initial anxiety and cross-purposes. He’s perhaps a prime example of the old astrological wisdom that easy aspects such as grand trines confer success early, while more challenging aspects have to work themselves out by progression until their true potential can be honed by later age. At 50, this presidential son is only just catching his stride – after first avoiding the political arena and his father’s shadow entirely by pursuing dance, then switching to journalism, and eventually reentering politics by becoming a radio and TV commentator.

The most obvious T-cross is Moon in the troublesome 12th opposite Saturn and square Mars, almost a textbook “father issues” pattern, where the father (Saturn) opposes the emotions (Moon) and in so doing hamstrings career expression (Mars, in this case in sensitive Pisces). That one doesn’t need much explanation. Perhaps more subtle and in the end quite motivating is the opposition of Mercury to Neptune, both square Uranus. That’s about coming to terms with both the spiritual (Neptune) and the progressive and revolutionary (Uranus) in a way that makes intellectual sense (Mercury) out of the self. Early on, both these T-crosses led him to flee into the arts, but after a while the inner issues demanded more intellectual pursuits, leading to journalism, and after resolving both intellectual, political, and family conflicts brought him to his current state of a highly sympathetic and articulate media voice for political and social progress.

Could it have happened sooner? Probably not — not only because of the two T-crosses to be worked out, but also Sun in the very last degree of Taurus, which means he perseveringly works things through until the eleventh hour, by which time he’s got it all tied down and is in there for a strong and well-prepared finish. That gentle Gemini Moon and Pisces Mars hide a tenacious end-game Sun and a passionate Cancer Ascendant which is not to be underestimated in an intense engagement. Easy to underestimate, at your own peril.

Current events: Ron Reagan really shifted gears and came out into the open when his progressed Sun got out of his 12th house and onto his Ascendant and first house, marked by his address to the Democratic Convention in 2004. It’s been ever upward after that, followed by progressed Moon passing his MC and entering his tenth house, as his carefully-thought-out insights have grown and are reaching an ever-larger audience. The future holds ever more as Jupiter sweeps the upper, public part of his chart and progressed Moon urges him to action hitting first his Mars (right now) and then his Sun, eventually reaching a first-house new Moon at the end of the Jupiter sweep in 2014-15. Expect a lot of blossoms on this late bloomer as he matures through his fifties and really comes to fill out his potential.