A closer look
President Theodore Roosevelt, universally remembered as a hyper-masculine rough rider who hunted bears and survived assassination attempts, surprisingly kept his personal astrological birth chart mounted on a wooden board in the Oval Office. Despite his rugged, no-nonsense public persona, the man who famously advised America to speak softly and carry a big stick still felt the need to periodically check his planetary transits before making major executive decisions. It is incredibly funny to imagine a man with a walrus mustache who famously mocked weakness secretly stressing out over a difficult square between his sun and Mars while trying to manage the construction of the Panama Canal. Modern politicians hide their reliance on psychics and astrologers out of fear of public ridicule, but Roosevelt boldly displayed his cosmic cheat sheet right next to his massive collection of taxidermy
