Lives of the rich and infamous
Dick Cheney

THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO MOVE ABOUT IN ONE'S LIFE consciously or unconsciously attempting to avoid death. You can become a doctor and find a “cure” for death. You can focus your life on making money and then pay the doctor for his “cure.” You can become a soldier and laugh in death’s face, as though you are invincible. You can be a priest and expect “special treatment.” If you are really desperate, you can even become a politician and become so “powerful” that you have no time for death (or anyone else) in your appointment book.

Or, you can live your life, be total in living your own true nature as an unique being, embracing everything that confronts you, hiding from nothing, and transcend “death.” The more we can find out “who” we are in this lifetime, the more likely we are to live our life authentically. Design gives us a plethora of relevant clues about who we are and what we are designed to live out.

Many mystics remark that the journey of life is accomplished in three inner stages. The first and most difficult step is to recognize the helplessness of the mind. The mind is only good for continuously commenting on its environment, but useless when trying to find a still-point in reality. Meditation gives us the means to recognize at least two things: that no matter how hard the mind thinks, there is no resolution, and: that Intelligence is greater than our mind. So, we find that Existence pushes us from this realization towards a recognition of our heart, and suddenly we find ourselves making the second step towards being open to “human” love. Many people stop here in their journey and hop backwards and forwards between their mind and heart in order to “justify” a potentially confused (illogical) situation.

The third step, from the Heart to the Being comes as we relinquish any concepts of control, entitlement, belief and concerns of how things are “supposed” to be. Recognition of one’s Being inevitably takes one beyond scripture, dogma and belief systems as we align into the Flow of Existence and allow ourselves to go wherever She will take us. The third step brings us to be embraced in Universal Love.

In this article, the last in the present series of the “Rich and Infamous,” we shall look at the Design of Dick Cheney, “the man with the iron smile.”

Dick Cheney is a man who has arrived at the pinnacle of the corporate world and is perhaps the most powerful business man in the world at this time. Richard Cheney was born on January 30th, 1941 in Lincoln, Nebraska. He is born into the Incarnation of the “4 Ways.” This Incarnation gives access to an enormous exploration throughout life, both on introspective as well as extroverted levels. With this Incarnation, every 17 or so years, the inner tide changes, and one either goes more into the world’s activities, or withdraws more into oneself. The tidal shift is triggered by the Moon’s Nodes, which are seen to delineate our changes of destiny in life. So, it could be said of someone with the Incarnation of the 4 Ways, that theirs is a very full lifetime with introspective periods allowing experiences to settle and become deeply ingrained personal knowing.

Of the Five different ways that Design Types interact together, Dick Cheney has the Design of a “Projector.” Projectors are the “connectors,” they help direct and bring people together and align them in (hopefully) constructive directions. Projectors can also be enormously destructive when they find themselves in a position to abuse their power and manipulate people in ways that do not really serve them.

The Emotional Dick Cheney
When you look into a Design chart there are certain particular clues that instantly tell you much about the nature of the person. In Dick’s chart, what is immediately of interest, is the fact that he has a defined Emotional, Solar Plexus Center, indicating that he is designed to be a “feeling” and “sensitive” man.

My experience in reading for and working with hundreds of “emotional” (emotionally defined) men, particularly those born in the 1940’s and 50’s, is that they were never, ever, ever allowed to express their emotional nature, except in the form of moodiness, anger and rage, which were deemed as appropriate expressions by their peers. Men were not considered to have feelings; that was all women’s stuff. Men were supposed to justify their actions by thinking their way through things, ignoring emotional sensibilities altogether.

Consequently, although Dick is a very sensitive guy by Design, he would never admit to it, or perhaps even recognize it about himself, but would seek every possible escape from situations where his emotional nature would be called forth. (He would love his openly lesbian daughter, but never have the means to relate fatherly values as a man who could express his true, emotional nature.) Nevertheless, the definition he has into his Emotional Center is the 19-49, the Channel of Sensitivity and the ability to Synthesize. This, coupled with the active 6th Gate of Conflict Resolution, and 36th Gate of Crisis Resolution, in the Emotional Center, makes him a natural born arbiter, intermediary and fixer of compromise situations. The nature of the 5th and 6th lines in the 6th Gate, ensures that he gets “his” way in any situation, be it domestic, political or business. Of course, if you don’t know “who” you are in the first place, the concept of getting “your” own way is a moot point, but this quality can make you invaluable to a vested interest for whom you work.

Heart Problems
Projectors have a great potential overview of how things can happen easily and efficiently. Because they have this view they often think that they need to take personal responsibility in all situations, follow through on everything and “do” it themselves, rather than delegate it to someone else, or, even check that something needs to be done in the first place!

One of the funniest realizations when one examines the wisdom of the Design system, is that most of us living on this planet are NOT designed to be “doing,” and yet, the world, and America in particular, is filled with a madness for achievements, regardless of whether those achievements are grounded in any form of necessity.

The Conscious South Node for Dick Cheney is in the 25th Gate, line 5, implying a first 40 year period in his life of recognizing the need to heal and be healed. The line is called “Recuperation.” In physiological terms, the 25 Gate relates to the Heart muscle that keeps our heart beating. If this muscle becomes strained (because we overload it), then it fails and some form of heart attack ensues. If we are not aligned with a clear knowledge of who we are and how we are designed to live, we bring on sometimes catastrophic illness. In Dick’s case, his 25 Gate is susceptible to energies brought by other people with the 51 Gate on the other end of the channel in the Ego, Heart Center. Even though he has a defined Ego Center himself, there are limits to what energy his own heart can take.

The 51 Gate is the Gate in the IChing called “the Arousing,” and relates to sometimes abrupt and shocking interruptions in life. In physiological terms, the 51 relates to the Gall Bladder, the organ that releases bile and stomach acid into the digestive system. But in language, we have the expression of someone being very “galling” or rude, and such people can have a profound effect on the heart health of Dick Cheney. In some ways in this life, he can literally have found certain people to be “bad” for his health!

On another level altogether, the Channel 51- 25 is the Channel of “Initiation,” implying two possibilities : the first is that Dick Cheney can identify with his Ego and seek to always get “his” way in which he can attempt to manipulate the world to “his” ways and end up straining his heart in the process, the other, is that he can be open to an introduction to his Higher Self. Each of us is given immense possibilities in our lifetime to meet a higher challenge.

The Entrepreneur
Of the 36 Channels that exist within the Design chart, two of them relate specifically to an entrepreneurial facility. Of these two, Dick Cheney has the 44 - 26, the Channel of the “Transmitter.”

This “transmitter” relates to someone with the characteristics of being able to take something old and familiar and turn it into something “new and improved.” The 44 Gate, which Dick inherits genetically and unconsciously from his Dad, is the Gate of recognizing patterns instinctively.


Dick’s Spleen is activated entirely with unconscious Gates, (colored red) which means that he cannot help himself but have an intrinsic, canny recognition of changing circumstances in the world around him, particularly because he gets perspective by (unconsciously) distancing himself from what appears to be going on. He can appear quite distant and uninvolved while all the time he is thoroughly attuned. At the other end of the channel, in the Ego/Willpower Center, the 26, activated by conscious Mars, a restless energy, impels him to associate himself personally, through a permanent state of dissatisfaction, with the scope of his achievements. This activation can cause him to overexert, especially in situations where he might be better off delegating work to others.

The Mental Picture
At the top of his chart, Dick has a definition between the Crown and Ajna Centers through the channel 61 -24, the channel of mental activity. Dick is constrained to be thinking 24 hours a day trying to discover reality through the use of his mind. Of course, there is an intense dissatisfaction here because the mind never ever quite arrives at a conclusive view, but recycles back, refining the previous set of thoughts.

That being said, he does have a brilliant and multifaceted mind, but since there is no connection in his own chart to his undefined Throat Center, whatever he has to say is going to come out differently than how he intends to say it. He can tap into brilliant insights, but when he speaks of it, everyone hears what they want to hear. He will have often found himself misunderstood in this lifetime, and for an emotional projector, that can feel very uncomfortable.

The Undefined Centers
An undefined Throat Center gives the potential for great spoken wisdom, particularly for the listening audience. However, whatever gets said is for the benefit of the audience and not necessarily for the person speaking.

With his 23 Gate, Dick expounds new insights that can shatter old beliefs, with his 31 Gate, he carries intense (Plutonic) influence, even coming across as quite arrogant in the guidance he offers to others. The 8 Gate has the voice of someone who is always ready to contribute, and the 33 Gate, sounds as though he needs to be apart, getting on with something more important than whatever confronts him, and “please don’t bother me!”

An undefined Self Center can imply a certain sense of personal insecurity that one never quite knows what one is doing, even to the point of feeling quite lost at times. (GW Bush and Saddam Hussein have this same characteristic in their Designs as well). The wisdom implied in an undefined Self Center comes though mirroring roles and purpose for others so that they can find their own placement in the scheme of life. Dick, George and Saddam provide great opportunities for us all to find our own truth and connectedness in this time.

An undefined Sacral Center implies a certain shortness of consistent energy. The Sacral is the center of Life Force Energy, and projectors are consistently capable at directing those who have this center defined, whether for constructive or destructive use of that energy. Dick has the 27 Gate, in a placement that can bring great attention to where schemes and systems need backing up. He also has the 14 Gate which can hold intrinsic wisdom in how service can best be offered on the material level, particularly around money and property matters.

In conclusion
There is no question that Dick Cheney is an enormously clever and capable person, brilliant even. There is also no question that he has failed to take the opportunity to move beyond his mental and entrepreneurial sides into his emotional clarity, to experience the true nature of his Being. If he ever allows himself to enter the climate in which this emotional, spiritual nature can come forth, he will dazzle the world with his brilliance.

Until this happens, we are watching a person who has strained himself in his heart reaching for nonessential goals in life, and overexerted himself in situations he would have best avoided. History is full of politicians who had a certain “greatness” in their time and then who were passed over and forgotten. Every now and then, we are dazzled by a Statesman or Stateswoman, who has allowed a level of humanity and spirituality to surpass the common crass neediness of politics and business and brought intelligence, joy and relief to a confused world. Dick can still rise to this, to stand by what he knows as truth, but his time is running out, and he remains “the man with the iron smile.”

Next month: The first in a new series : The Voices of Light : The Beatles.

© 2002 Chetan Parkyn

To email this article to a friend click here.