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May 30, 2014

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Wars of America — Part II

In part I we looked at the three wars that divide American history into convenient and appropriate sections: The Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and World War II, and found that these three wars came at intervals of about 84 years, one Uranus cycle. In each case, at some point Uranus was opposite the Ascendant, and thus conjunct the Descendant, of the United States chart. Also during the war, Neptune was either conjunct or opposite the Midheaven of the United States. This may or may not be because Neptune has almost exactly double the period of Uranus and so when Uranus moves around the zodiac once Neptune moves half-way around the zodiac.

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King William’s War

The next thing to do is look at the periods 84 and 168 years before the Revolutionary War, when Uranus was also conjunct the Descendant of the United States. The first time was 1693, when the United States was still a colony of England. At this time there was an ongoing conflict between England and France, who at the time controlled Canada. Part of this conflict took place in North America, and the American colonists were involved on, of course, the side of Britain. What was taking place at the time was the first of three wars which are referred to in high school history books as the French and Indian Wars. This first one was called, in America, King William’s War, for the current king of England, who was imported from the Netherlands, along with his wife, because the British did not want a Catholic king, who had been King James II, who was replaced in the Glorious Revolution. This war, as all the French and Indian wars, was essentially between the French and the English. The war started in 1689 and ended by treaty in 1697, only to be followed in another five years by another war.

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King William’s War

 

In the first chart for July 9, 1693 Uranus has just come to the Descendant of the United States. It also makes a sesquiqadrate to Pluto, again accentuating the Pluto semisquare Ascendant in the natal chart, which is involved in US wars. The second chart for this particular war is for June 2, 1697 where Neptune comes to the IC of the United States. Again we see the pattern that we saw in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and World War II repeated. But this war is smaller even than the Revolutionary War.

 

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Starving Time

 

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After the Starving Time

Let’s look 84 years further back. There was only one colony on what would become the United States, at Jamestown. An earlier colony in the Carolinas had disappeared. This colony at Jamestown had been founded on May 14, 1607 but for food they either traded with the Indians or relied on shipments from England. The Winter of 1609-10 was extremely hard, and almost 90% of the colonists died. Domestic animals were killed for food, and some cannibalism took place, as a recent New York Times story tells a about an current archaeological discovery. A fleet from England did finally come, but it had only more colonists and not food. In the summer of 1610 (July 7) as they sailed away another ship with supplies came and they returned to the colony, which then was firmly established. This was the first crisis of America. If we look at chart for November 24, 1609, that winter of the Starving Time, as it has come to be called, we see that Uranus is on the Descendant of the United States, as it was in the previous four charts. However, looking at the next chart for November 24, 1614, when Neptune first came to the Midheaven, we see that it is a full five year after the crisis, and so this does not seem to fit the pattern. Of course, in this example the crisis only lasted a few months, not nearly as long as the others did.

 

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Eleven Years in the Future

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A Future War?

What we have seen is five crises, starting at the birth of the colony at Jamestown and occurring every 84 years with increasing death, violence, and geographical spread happening to the United States. The obvious question is when will this patten happen next. As it tuns out, the next time Uranus comes to the Descendant of the United States is in less than 15 years, as we can see by this last chart, for July 17, 2028. One would expect another war, even bigger than World War II. Several possibilities: Aliens from outer space will invade and the nations of the world will band together to fight them. A bit fanciful, then perhaps it will be an asteroid that will be expected to hit the earth and the nations of the world will band together to fight it. Or perhaps it will be a world wide fight between th 1% and the 99% since inequality has become so much worse than it is now. Or perhaps the final collapse of the ecosystems of the world. But since I’m an optimist (Jupiter conjunct Sun) my best guess is that the nations of the world will finally decide that the global crises are so ominous that they need to band together in a World War II-scale attempt to fight for the survival of the planet. Of course it should have been done in the 1980s. There is much more that needs to be said about this period, one of the most important of at least the 21st Century, but we need to have more background. If this is the type of crises we will face in another dozen years, it suggests that many things will happen between now and then to make the countries of the world think that that type of world wide response is finally necessary. We will look for signs of that in future entries.

 

 

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May 23, 2014

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Prohibition and its Discontents

The Twenties in the United States was very active, both in the world and astrologically. There were three significant transits to the chart of the United States during this period, but there is one I want to draw your attention to, and that is the transit of Neptune opposite the Moon of the United States. One theme I have mentioned for Moon Neptune is denial, illusion, and that was certainly the case in the speculative binge on the stock market that was taking place in the Twenties. We know how that turned out. While we have drawn attention to meanings of Neptune in another entries there is another one I want to draw your attention to this time: drugs. In general, Neptune is said to rules dugs. Also oil, but that is certainly a drug, as many people including George W. Bush have pointed out. But Neptune rules drugs in general, a change of consciousness. But there are several groups of drugs, and I have the different types ruled by the three outer planets. Uranus rules stimulants, such as caffeine, cocaine, amphetamine, nicotine, in other words uppers. Neptune rules depressants, such as alcohol, opiates, barbiturates, in other words downers. And Pluto rules psychedelics, such as cannabis, LSD, ecstasy.

 

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Prohibition

 

Neptune opposite the Moon of the United States is a good symbol for the attitudes toward alcohol that were happening in this country. On one hand this was a national extension of the earlier prohibition laws that had been passed at a state level. On the other hand there was a widespread flouting of the law by people from poor to rich and increased drinking of harder liquor, since if you’re going to smuggle contraband you might as well smuggle something concentrated.

 

In 1846 Maine became the first state in the nation to pass a law outlawing the sale of any beverages containing alcohol. The main proponent of this law was the mayor of Portland, Neal Dow. Five years later this law was strengthened. A few years after that the law had spread to many more states. This was the beginning of Prohibition of alcohol, thought it took another 70 years to make it the law of the land.  Many groups worked to bring prohibition to the national level.

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First Prohibition

If we look at a chart of transits to the United States in 1846 we see that Neptune, the planet of drugs, is squarely upon the Moon. The fact that Saturn is also there certainly helps matter, since Saturn represents limits and constriction, which is certainly well in keeping with the Prohibitionist mindset. Often the discovery of a planet – especially Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto – is linked to events that were happening in the world at that time. This was certainly true of Neptune, which was discovered in 1846 just as prohibition was become the law of at least one state.

 

Drinking was indeed excessive in antebellum United States, as compared to the standard of today. Farmers on the frontier found it was easier to transport corn to the East coast as whiskey than as ears of corn. Hard apple cider was also very popular. While I don’t have the exact figures at hand, the level of drinking was several times higher per person than it is now. And young people were part of the crowd that was drinking. One can well see why prohibition societies grew up.

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End of Prohibition Starts

When I saw that Neptune was coming to a conjunction with the US Moon once again, the first time since 1846, the year the planet was discovered, I realized that something would happen in regards to prohibition. Since I could see the trends I did not think that prohibition would make a comeback.

It all started with the legalization of marijuana in the states of Colorado and Washington, after almost happening in California (two years previously) and in Oregon that year of 2012. Then the South American country of Uruguay legalized also. But even more impressive, all kinds of officials are coming out saying that the drug war, which got started with the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914, is badly conceived and counterproductive. Majorities of the American public agree that marijuana should be legalized and that it will be in a few years.

This is hardly a new idea; one could mention the book Licit and Illicit Drugs by Edward M. Beecher published by that extremely radical organization Consumers Union back in 1972 or the first book by Andrew Weil The Natural Mind, also published in 1972. Other books with the same ideas, such as Marijuana Reconsidered by Lester Grinspoon (1971), also come out in this period, as many authors were reacting to the drug use of the Sixties.

We are also seeing a renaissance of interest in psychedelic drugs, such as LSD, psilocybin, MMDA (ecstasy) for the use in psychotherapy, end-of-life, increased spirituality, among other uses. Many of these “new” findings recapitulate the findings of fifty years earlier, before the inevitable backlash. To someone who has followed the tangled course of the War on Drugs this change of attitude is nothing short of amazing.

 

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May 16, 2014

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A Small Circle of Friends: Kitty Genovese

Another fiftieth anniversary took place two months ago, and a couple of books were published in commemoration of the event. This was the rape and murder of Kitty Genovese in Queens, New York on March 13, 1964. This type of event is, unfortunately, very common in the United States and elsewhere, but this event was special. This event captured the interest of the country (if not the world) and is still mentioned in textbooks. While the brutal crime took place supposedly many people were aware of it and did nothing, so that it is held up as an example of people not wanting to get involved. It was the inspiration of a song by Phil Ochs, a contemporary of Bob Dylan (one rumor has it that Dylan’s song “Positively 4th Street” is about Ochs), his most popular, called “Outside a Small Circle of Friends”. The song would have been more popular except for an ironic anti-drug lyric that offended parents too dull to appreciate the support for the supposed a-motivational syndrome of marijuana in the song.

According to WikiPedia, she arrived back at her apartment from work at about 3:15 the morning of that day, parked and walked to her apartment. I’ve done these charts for 3:20 AM and since they are timed charts we can use the position of the Moon. I did not really except anything to show up, and so again I was surprised. While many girls and women are raped and murdered in the United States each year in an all too common act, this one was special in that in captured, and still captures, the attention of the country.

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Let’s look at this first chart, transits for the event to the United States chart. We see the loose Uranus-Pluto conjunction, and since Uranus is behind Pluto, we know that the conjunction is forming. This is the signature of the Sixties, but it has some time to go before it is exact. Notice also that it is a New Moon – about one day before exact, with a conjunction of Sun, Moon, Mercury, and Mars. In fact, Mercury is almost exactly on he Sun. Mars is half way between Sun and Moon. Sun Moon midpoint can be read as man and woman, and with Mars there it could indicate violence between a man and a woman. But of course this midpoint configuration happens often, so while it indicates the nature of the event, it does not say this is special, and of course it could indicate other things as well.

There is an exact conjunction between Mercury and the Sun, within one minute, and the conjunction will be exact by 4 am. This suggests that this is the day (Sun) that communication (Mercury) is important, that something will be communicated. And in fact, the murder of Kitty Genovese was communicated for the next fifty years.

Next we have the Sun opposite Neptune of the United States. There is something Neptunian about this event. Things are unclear, confused. Not only is this true of the event, but even to this time certain important facts are little know, for example, the fact that she was raped as well as murdered is not part of the standard narrative, and the fact that she lived with her female lover is mostly unknown.

And then there is Pluto. It squares the Ascendant and sesquiquadrates the natal Pluto of the United States, both aspects fairly tight. This accentuates the Pluto-Ascendant semisquare that is so fundamental to the character of the United States. My reading of this is that the event was a reminder of the violent nature of the United States as revealed by this natal semisquare, as talked about in the entry about the Gulf of Tonkin, which took place a few months after the Kitty Genovese murder.

Another tight aspect is the trine between Mars and Neptune. Mars Neptune combinations can be problematic and difficult to handle; the square in the chart of United States is one example, but a trine is somewhat different. The keyword I give for hard aspects is “overt”, they force themselves on you, you can not ignore them. Soft aspects are “covert” in that you may not notice their effect. Most people think soft aspect are easier, but more important is the planets involved, and these two together are not easy. With a trine the “unresolved energy” is not obvious but it is still happening.

 

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Since this is a timed chart, the position of the Moon is meaningful. It is opposite Pluto, but to see this more clearly look at the fourth harmonic chart. In this we can see that the Moon-Pluto conjunction (in the fourth harmonic) is almost exact, and almost exactly conjunct the United States Ascendant and opposite the United States Pluto. This was an event that really effected the United States. And that Moon-Pluto tight aspect can be read as brutality (Pluto) to women (Moon).

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Looking further at the fourth harmonic chart, we see things that were not evident in the firs harmonic chart. Neptune is at the midpoint, and making aspects with, Saturn and Venus. One simple minded way of thinking about this combination is uncertainly about difficulty with woman. Ebertin says about this midpoint “wrong ideas about love” which is certainly an understatement. There are tight hard aspects between transiting Saturn and Neptune with the natal Mars. This again brings out the unclear and limiting expression of energy – violence – in this event.

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Looking at the event chart, we see that transiting Neptune was hight in the sky close to the local Midheaven at the time of the event and would pass over the Midheaven in 11 minutes. This further adds to the confusion – the neighbors did not know whether to call the police – and uncertainty surrounding the event. Neptune was very strong in the murder of Kitty Genovese.

 

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May 9, 2014

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The Wars of America – Part I

In general, American history is divided into four periods: before the Revolutionary War, from the Revolutionary War to the Civil War, from the Civil War to World War II, and after World War II. This division is not just arbitrary. Obviously there was a big change to the country after it declared itself independent from Great Britain and successfully fought a war to achieve that end. The Civil War allowed former slaves to “vote” and the many industries who had made a profit during the war, and specifically the railroads, were able after the war to continue to get very big and dominate the country – the appropriately named (First) Gilded Age was the result. And after the Second World War the defense industries that were empowered during the War were able to continue their growth with the convenient rise of the Cold War. Many technologies that were developed for the war were put to peace-time use which resulted in a more technological-oriented society.

So below we will look at the astrological patterns that existed during all three of these boundary events, the three wars that defined America. One can think of the first period as one of youth, the second period as one of adulthood, and the third period, the one we are in now, as the period of maturity.

The official dates for the Revolutionary War are from the Battle of Lexington and Concord (April 19,1775) to the surrender at Yorktown (October 19, 1781). The dates for the American Civil War are from the firing on Fort Sumter (April 12, 1861) to the surrender at Appomattox court house (April 9, 1965). The dates for American participation in World War II – the Americans were definitely late to the party – is measured from the attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941) to the surrender of Japan (Germany had surrendered 4 months earlier) on September 2, 1945. One notices that the wars got larger – more participants and over a larger area — and more bloody over time.

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This first image for June 23, 1777 is not, as far as I know, a stand out date in the Revolutionary War. Notice that all three outer planets are near their birth locations. This is not surprising, considering that this chart is less than a year after birth. What the chart does show is that Uranus is passing over the Descendant and on this date is exactly opposite the Ascendant for the first time since birth. Again, not surprising since the natal position of Uranus is close to the Descendant. Whereas the Ascendant relates to the personal projection – a good synonym is persona – the Descendant is the opposite point, and indicates how we relate to the outside world. In personal astrology, this often is used to refer to the partner or people one draws to oneself or open enemies. In either case, it refer to energy coming to us from outside, which can easily be seen as a war which also comes to us. In the second chart, for November 23, 1778 we see that Neptune has come to the Midheaven of the United States. The Midheaven refers to the way the country relates to the outside world, one can see it as a public persona as opposed to the private persona of the Ascendant. I am at a loss for an interpretation of Neptune on the Midheaven that would relate to a war. The symbolism would suggest that our public image is unclear, uncertain, foggy. Perhaps this is just an effect of Neptune having almost exactly twice the period of Uranus (84 vs. 165 years) and Uranus-Descendant is the operative aspect.

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Let’s move on the the Civil War. Here there is only one chart, for March 11, 1962. The war had started almost a year earlier. We see both Uranus opposite the Ascendant as in the first Revolutionary War chart, and Neptune conjunct the IC (Imum Coeli – the Bottom of the Sky) of the United States chart, opposite the Midheaven. This is about one Uranus cycle, 84 years, after the first chart. The fact that Neptune is now opposite the earlier position (the second chart for November 23, 1778) is not surprising since the period of Neptune is almost exactly double that of Neptune. Note also that since the natal Uranus is close to the Descendant and the natal Neptune is close to the Midheaven, these periods are also close to a Uranus return and a Neptune bi-return. But we do see a pattern.

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Let’s look at World War II. The first chart is for November 5, 1942, the first time Neptune conjoined the Midheaven of the United States on this cycle. Then the second chart for World War II for August 6, 1944, one year to the day before the dropping of the atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, the first pass of Uranus to the Descendant of the United States. Also Neptune is very close – one degree beyond – the Midheaven. This was again one Uranus cycle and one-half a Neptune cycle since the Civil War. The pattern repeats itself.

The Descendant is where energy comes in to you from outside, and so Uranus on the Descendant suggests disturbance, upset coming into the country, like for example as war. At least it was in the three cases we looked at. Since we have only the United States a an example, and only three cases to draw upon, we can’t draw an overwhelming conclusion. But in every case there was, the correlation was definite.

In part two of this subject, we will look at examples of Uranus on the Descendant before the birth of the country to see if the patten holds. And we will look at the obvious – when will this pattern repeat again.

 

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April 25, 2014

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Constitution Summer

The Constitutional Convention was called for on February 21, 1787 to start May 14, 1787 but there wasn’t a quorum. A quorum was reached on May 25. It was finally signed on September 17, 1787. So you can see that that summer in Philadelphia was spent planning, writing, and arguing about the document that would eventually be called the United States Constitution.

 

The Constitutional Convention was called as a way to amend the Articles of Confederation under which the country operated up to then. The Article of Confederation required a consensus of the states to amend it. However, only nine states had ratified the Constitution when it took effect, and two states ratified it after the first President was elected.

 

If we look at the chart erected for the opening of the Convention on May 25 we see that Saturn is on the Moon. By looking at the graphical ephemeris for that summer we see that Saturn went back and forth over the moon, and back and forth sesquiquadrate to the Sun of the United States. Now the United States is a very Saturnine nation, as we shall talk about at a different time; one indication of this is Saturn square Sun in the U.S. Chart. But the Constitution is also a document seeped in Saturn. What does this mean for the country and our system of laws, based on that Constitution? Saturn is limits, definitions, concrete reality. It is by nature conservative, possibly pessimistic, expecting the worse. Saturn in this case covers three area: conservative, lawyers, property. We shall discuss each in turn.

 

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Constitutional Convention

 

Of the 55 men (no women allowed!) at the Constitutional Convention, fully 35 were lawyers or trained in the law, or 63%, almost two-thirds. So from the beginning America was dominated by lawyers. (Insert any lawyer jokes you have here.) And it has only continued that way. A majority of the members of Congress are lawyers, and many have commented on the litigious nature of our society. There are so many laws (written by the lawyer-dominated Congress and state legislatures) that one needs a lawyer to navigate it all. As one who has availed himself of lawyers from time to time, they are extremely valuable and helpful. But again, many have commented by how lawyers dominate our society.

 

Many think that the Constitution came from God, especially the Second Amendment which Moses brought down with the Ten Commandments, and so it can’t be criticized. But in reality the Constitution is a conservative document that was designed to slow down the process of law making (consider checks and balances) which has lead to many of the problems with government we face today. Just think of the Electoral College, two Senators from every state so that Wyoming and California have the same number of Senators, and lifetime appointment of Supreme Court justices. Daniel Lazare in his books The Velvet Coup and The Frozen Republic has outlined well the problems with the Constitution, and George Kenney on electricpolitics.com has talked often about the need to rewrite the Constitution.

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Harmonic 8 Graphical Epheremis
Constitution Summer

An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States by Charles Beard is possibly the most controversial history book of all time. Beard, a Progressive historian of the early Twentieth Century, gives an alternate view of why the Constitution was created, to protect the economic interest of the Founders and their friends, most of whom were wealthy. John Hancock, for example, was one of the wealthiest men in the colonies. Another alternate view is that of Staughton Lynd in Class Conflict, Slavery, and the United States Constitution, that argues that protecting slave owners was an important part of the Constitution. (Interestingly, George Kenney just interviewed Staughton Lynd about this book. Kenney’ s show – electric politics – is interesting because he not only covers politics but also less mainstream topics such as UFOs, ESP, and reincarnation. I suggested to Mr. Kenney that he interview Richard Tarnas about subjects similar to what is covered in this blog. Tarrnas is an academic who has written a standard undergraduate textbook, The Passion of the Western Mind, and who was introduced to astrology by Rob Hand when they were both at Esalen. I was shot down and realized that among the intellectual class interest in astrology is considered only slightly above an interest in child pornography.) The theories of these books go in and out of fashion; sometimes they are condemned and at other times a restatement of them is published.

 

 

Another important aspect of Saturn-dominance of the United States is the high esteem property is held in these United States, one can almost say worship. Even though the term “property” is not used in the Constitution, its function is hard to miss. The Commerce Clause (Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3) is the most obvious, but there are others that relate. And this worship of property is put in so-called Free Trade Agreements, such as NAFTA and the current Trans Pacific Partnership – TPP — which allow business to sue for loss of value of their property because of, for example, environmental regulations. And of course the whole subject of regulations of business is considered as evil because they interfere with the right of property, which are considered to have higher rights than that of people. Many Supreme Court decisions relate to the rights of property such as the Citizens United decision. As I write this there was recently a standoff in Nevada between a cattlemen and the Federal government that comes down to property rights.

 

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April 18, 2014

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The Shot Heard Around the World

 

The phrase “The Shot Heard Around the World” most often refers to the Battle of Lexington and Concord, which was the opening battle of the American Revolutionary War. I’ve noticed that events in colonial America, before the “birth” of the country on July 4, 1776, also show up as relevant transits to the birth chart of the United States. I’ve even gone back as far as Columbus’ first sighing land and seen that that also shows up in the chart of the United States. But in this case the event in question took place a little over a year before the birth. This particular chart is an example of what I call “astrological cliché” since it appears to have been made up to fit the event in question. Another example of an astrological cliché is the life of that Libra President, Chester A. Arthur, who was called “Gentleman Boss”.

From accounts, it appears the first shots were fired shortly after sunrise, about 5 AM on April 19, 1775. The first chart is an event chart, set for the time of the event. We see that the sun has just risen and is about five degrees about the horizon, about 20 minutes after sunrise. The tightest aspect – Sun sesquiquadrate Moon – is almost exact, presages the Sun-Moon sesquiquadrate in the natal chart and thus the continuing conflict between the people and the government, as can be seen in many things such as the rise of the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists at the Constitutional Convention.

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Lexington Event Chart

But what is really interesting is the second chart, the transits of this time in the natal chart of the U.S. Since this event is near the birth, the outer planets are already in the position or close to the positions they will occupy in the natal chart. The first thing you may notice is that the Moon is on the Ascendant and rising as this event happens. This suggests the beginning of a process, as the Moon is suddenly visible and its visibility will only increase. This event is a beginning of the Revolutionary War, which is the beginning of the country of America.

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Battle of Lexington and Concord

But notice the position of Mars opposite the natal Moon. Mars is literally gunfire – a shot – and its position opposite the Moon indicates that this is something that the people will be aware of. But then look at Mercury, representing communication, which can be read as “heard”. This is opposite the Midheaven, which represents the public impression of the country in the outside world. So the chart of the start of the Battle of Lexington and Concord, when looked at with the natal chart of the United States, says this event is the shot heard around the world.

Now I hear some critics asking could you predict what event happened with this chart before the event. Of course not. If you notice these minor transits at all – Mars goes around the zodiac every two years and Mercury in less that one year – this is not what you would have predicted. But of course the fact that both Marts is in that position and Mercury is in that position at the same time is much more rare. But not even if you did notice this could you predict the corresponding event. But is is very interesting that on hindsight the astrological conditions were so prefect that the event is called by what the astrological configuration suggests.

 

 

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April 11, 2014

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The Vietnam War: Another Fiftieth Anniverary

 

Another fiftieth anniversary is coming in August, the fiftieth anniversary of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that passed the Senate on August 7, 1964 with famously only two senators, from Oregon and Alaska, voting against it. The Vietnam War was a multi-administration project, with the start of our involvement under the Truman administration, as he increased support for the French in Vietnam at the same time as he engaged in the Korean War; and it picked up under Eisenhower; and all the basics of the Vietnam War we know and love were set by the Kennedy administration; but the “crossing the Rubicon” moment is the passing of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in the first year of the Johnson administration. Supposedly the North Vietnamese attacked two U. S. destroyers that were near the country, and this was the casus belli need for the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, but it was later revealed that the two destroyers were spying on North Vietnam and that at least one of the attacks did not happen. As has happened so often in American history (cf. USA PATRIOT Act) things are rushed through Congress in the heat of the moment with no reflection of the consequences.

The tightest aspect in the chart of the United States is Pluto semisquare Ascendant. The epithet I give to this aspect is “My Way or the Highway”. It is worth quoting at length what Ebertin says about this combination of planets. Keep in mind that Ebertin was basically talking about human beings, and with a semiquare the negative interpretation is the more likely one: Ebertin’s mother famously did a horoscope for Hitler so he knew what he was talking about.

Will-power, ambition, the striving for power, the utilisation of magic or psychic forces. The display of an unusual personal influence.

Dictatorship or rule by force. The desire to bring other people under the rule of one’s own will. A repulsive behavior.

The striving for the attainment of power and authority. The tendency to suppress or to oppress others. The attainment of success in life by brutal and ruthless means.

This is not the type of behavior any politician will admit to in this, the most exceptional of all nations. While this behavior was demonstrated early on, it did not reach full maturity until after the Second World War. The Dulles Brothers in that period most demonstrated this behavior and the Vietnam War was one of the most obvious early manifestation. A recently published book The Brothers by Stephan Kinzer details the strong involvement of the Dulles Brothers with the growing Cold War, including Vietnam.

So let’s take a look at the chart for this event.

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Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

Since this event only occurred a few months after the Beatles concert, several transits are the same: There is the approaching Uranus-Pluto conjunction – it is the Sixties after all – almost exact in another three months, and there is the Uranus square natal Uranus, showing that it is a quarter Uranus cycle after World War II. It might be tempting to relate outbreaks of hostility by the United States to Uranus hard aspects with its natal position, but since the United States is involved in so many violent conflicts this is a unhelpful search. Then there is the loose Saturn conjunct the natal Moon – the people are still depressed – Kennedy was assassinated nine months previously, as we also saw in the Beatles chart. And Pluto is still sextile the Sun of the United States.

This event took place at a New Moon. Minor perhaps, but New Moons signify the start of a new project. And the project we started at this New Moon turned out to be a doozy! The New Moon was exact at about three that afternoon.

And then there was a transiting Sun square transiting Neptune. This quadrature – squares, opposition, conjunction – to transiting Neptune happens four time a year, fairly common. The Sun moves so fast that the keyword for it is “day of” (just as aspects from the Moon are “hour of” and from the transiting Midheaven are “minute of”) so this particular day could be called the day of deception or the day of illusion. This aspect was exact at about the time of the New Moon.  Thus the Moon was also square Neptune.  Only two Senators saw that, but in retrospect it is obvious. And to further emphasize this we also have Neptune loosely trine the Sun of the United States. And indeed the government was deceived but few knew it at the time. Neptune was also semisquare the Midheaven, which represent the outward expression of the United States.

Another minor point is that Mars – the planet of war – was conjunct natal Jupiter, suggesting “lots of war”. Jupiter is part of the important Sun-Venus-Jupiter triple conjunction that is so important to the American Character. Mars is also square the Midheaven, again emphazing War into the world.

But the “money aspects” are the Mercury-Pluto conjunction square the the Ascendant and sesquiquadrate to Pluto. These tight aspects emphasize the Pluto Ascendant semisquare mentioned at the beginning, the aspect that strongly defines America. The Pluto aspect was exact two weeks before the vote, and it was still quite close. The fact that it is Pluto even more highlights the Plutonian nature – big, brutal – of the whole Vietnam War, and the fact that Mercury is closely conjunct Pluto – less than half a degree — suggests the nature of the war. The Vietnam War is considered the first television (communications, Mercury) war, where the nightly news had graphic images of soldiers wounded and bodies counted. Just what you want to see when you are eating dinner!  This turned many people off to the war, and some even consider a “stab in the back” from the media, which is why we lost the war. The end of the war is assumed to have come when preeminent nightly newscaster Walter Cronkite denounced it.

 

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March 7, 2014

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Remember the Maine!

The Spanish-American War is widely considered to mark the start of the American Empire.  The event that touched off the war was the explosion of the U.S. cruiser Maine in the Havana harbor the evening of February 15, 1898.  At the time it was widely assumed, helped by the jingoism of the press, that it was an attack by the dastardly Spanish.  Now it is thought to be an explosion on board the ship, but still conspiracy theories abound.  This act led America to invade Cuba – which had long been considered “ours” – and the other Spanish colonies, most notably  the Philippines, leading to a bloody war which featured American water-boarding.

The last Indian wars were past, the frontier had been declared closed, and many American thought it was time to expand beyond our borders.  The Spanish-American War came about at a convenient time. In  fact, America was itching for war.  Back in December 1895  the United States almost got into a war with Great Britain over Venezuela.  Many of the “leaders” of the country, such as  Theodore Roosevelt, were for it  as a  way of increasingly America’s manhood.  It had been so long since this country had a war, and it was time for another one.

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Looking at the chart, it seems like a mirror image of the 9/11 chart.  We have the notorious Saturn-Pluto hard aspect, again an opposition, along the Angles.  But in this case Pluto is on the Descendant and  Saturn is on the Ascendant, the opposite of the 9/11 chart.  This makes sense:  on 9/11 the explosion was in the Homeland – the Ascendant – whereas the explosion on the Maine was in a foreign country – the Descendant.  Pluto was also     on the Descendant during the earlier war scare.

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Notice by looking at the graphical ephemeris that Pluto was again stationary about to turn direct and Saturn was slowing down  about to turn retrograde.   The exact opposition took place a couple of weeks later,  on the Ascendant and as both were stationary.  At the time discussion was happening in Congress and the newspapers about the upcoming war.     Also notice the year long conjunction of Neptune with natal Mars, repeating a similar Neptune-Mars theme which we saw in the  9/11 chart.

Mars had passed over Pluto a week before.  I  jokingly call this the sign of mass murders (Ebertin says force, brutality), which doesn’t please those with this common configuration; the conjunction happens every two years, but one can see why I call it that: The killer at Virginia  Tech had  this conjunction.  Also notice that Mars passed over the Moon of the United States in another month as people were getting agitated for war, and by late April when war was declared, Neptune was stationary on natal Mars  and transiting Mars was opposite natal Neptune and square natal Mars, thus accentuating the problematic Mars-Neptune square in the U.S. Chart.