America
The USA Horoscope Words, Facts and Conspiracy Theories
By Tony the Misfit on Flickr - [1], CC BY 2.0, Link A longer version of this article was first published in Los Angeles' Whole Life Times in 1998 Firstly, before I start dissecting the USA, if you are new to astrology (and I'm not talking about tabloid Sun sign entertainment, but spiritual theology), you might like to read my first article in this series Turning Of The Age as it sets out some basic principles of the art, and of the times that we currently live in.
Since there is so much controversy over the ascendant of the American birthchart, because we do not know the exact time that the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776, I’m going to use a “flat” chart and just consider the planets and signs. For those unfamiliar with the U.S. Chart, these are the planetary positions: Sun, Mercury, Jupiter and Venus are in Cancer at 12, 24, 5, and 2 degrees respectively. Moon is between 12 and 18 Aquarius (depending upon the time of the signing), Uranus and Mars are at 8 and 20 degrees of Gemini respectively, Saturn is at 14 degrees Libra, Neptune is at 22 Virgo and Pluto at 27 Capricorn. Why do we use this chart and not a chart for the start of the Revolutionary War, or the day the first pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, or indeed, the day Christopher Columbus landed in the late 1400s? The reason is that July 4 is the date celebrated every year by Americans as its birthday. Like a religious ritual, this yearly celebration repeatedly imprints the initial signature of America on the American subconsciousness mind, for better or for worse.
The admirable traits of the country can easily be seen by the Sun conjunct Jupiter, and some astrologers have surmised that the Founding Fathers chose July 4 to declare their independence from England because of this fortunate conjunction (actually Jupiter aspects like a square, as in the US chart to Saturn, can denote foolish espansion and arrogance, so I'm not sure that this story has any validity). Even if we don’t know the exact time of signing of the Declaration if Independence, the Moon was definitely in Aquarius, symbolizing the country as a democracy, and in a Grand Air Trine with Mars and Saturn.. Free speech is represented by the trine to Mars in Gemini and America's technological edge by the trine to Saturn. Everyone comes here in search of a home (Cancer) and the abundance promised by Jupiter.
If we look up at the sky at the planet Saturn, perhaps with the aid of a telescope, we immediately note the planet’s rings. These rings are a good visual representation of the planet’s astrological meaning of limitation. This does not mean that Saturn is “bad”. The principle of limitation is what turns light energy into material things that we can see, touch and possess, and this is why Saturn is said to be the prince of the material world. America’s Sun is square to Saturn in Libra, signifying that we are very much a materialist society. We are a capitalist democracy, emphasizing the production and sale of goods to keep our economy healthy, whether those goods are food, kitchen appliances, guitars, cars or weapons. Libra is the sign of Justice, so that the square to the Sun in Cancer might explain why our justice system is so tied up with materialism. It is very difficult for the poor person who cannot afford a good lawyer to get justice. It is when we humans put the illusion of separateness above the truth that everything is really One, and put too much emphasis on materialism and making a monetary profit, that we produce the so-called devil in our society
Since the US horoscope Jupiter is also brought into this square, and Jupiter stands for our morals, these tend to have a more materialistic emphasis. America is very much motivated by fear: fear of not having enough or fear that there is something out there separate from us just waiting to take it away from us. Just look at American houses (Cancer rules the home), many of which are protected by jail-like railings, guard dogs and security systems, not to mention guns, and compare this to houses across the border in Canada, whose owners do not seem half so fearful, even leaving their doors unlocked. The murder rate in Canada is about five times less than in America, even though the two countries border each other, so we cannot ignore the suggestion that the American culture and legal system has some connection with these statistics.
Pluto in Capricorn is the highest planet in the flat chart, opposing Mercury in Cancer. Known in astrology as the “parent” signs, Capricorn symbolizes the stereotype father, going out into the material world to take care of the family’s needs and responsible for discipline: and Cancer symbolizes the mother, who traditionally had a more nurturing role and was considered the “soul” of the family. Our Pluto-Mercury opposition strikingly shows how this county was formed: a strict “father” county, Britain, imposing its will on its offspring in a faraway land. But as we know, children inherit personality traits from their parents and America inherited precisely the patterns that she was trying to escape by force at the time of independence: the Pluto-Mercury opposition. In America how do we keep discipline? American police have always needed to carry guns because citizens have the right to carry them. The “voice” (Mercury) of our mothers is often stifled or coerced by the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA). And the growing of our food, symbolized by Cancer, has been taken over by big business corporations (Capricorn). Please note that astrologers do not regard 18 year olds as "adult" in a holistic manner. Real responsibility only comes after the Saturn Return at age 29, and science is now confirming this belief by showing that the human brain does not stop developing until age 25-30. For more on this subject, please see my article on Motherhood.
But if we really want to hone in on violence in America, we have to consider our Mars. In the American Chart, Mars in Gemini is square to Neptune in Virgo. This aspect symbolizes how transcendental spirituality (Neptune) is confused with ego – a dysfunctional Mars. Since the separation of church and state Americans have virtually made a religion out of our pledge of allegiance and patriotic songs. We also think that it is our “right” to own a gun.
WORDS Mars and Neptune are also in two signs, Gemini and Virgo respectively, that are ruled by the planet of communication, Mercury. Mercury is also the planet of discrimination, separating things out into their proper place. How many times have you heard an American say “Oh, it’s not the guns that are evil, it’s the people who use them in the wrong way,” or “There are good uses and bad uses for guns, rather like cars”. While it is true that gun use in the military serves a useful purpose, could someone please tell me a good use for a gun in the civilian population? Arguments claiming defense from criminals are illogical, because anyone who owns a gun has the potential of becoming a criminal, and guns are made with the intention that they will be used. If guns were really just a “deterrent” against criminals, they would be made of wood and would be sold without bullets. Guns are not like cars or kitchen knives, which can be used for several purposes, some good and some evil. The truth is that guns only have one purpose. They are made to kill people.
And what about the wording of the Second Amendment? In case you haven’t read this confusingly worded document lately, here it is:
“A WELL REGULATED MILITIA, BEING NECESSARY TO THE SECURITY OF A FREE STATE, THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS, SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED.”
Does this mean that civilians have the right to keep and bear arms as long as they organize themselves into a well-organized militia? What EXACTLY does it mean? We cannot blame the founding fathers who included George Washington and Benjamin Franklin for our modern day interpretation of the document they wrote over 200 years ago, because when they wrote it it was relevant for the times in which they lived. But when Washington and Franklin lived in the 1700s, the planet Neptune had not been discovered (it was discovered in 1846). In other words, the founding fathers, although they might have been influenced by astrology, since Franklin was a Freemason and we have evidence that he studied it, did not know that on the day they chose to found the U.S.A. the planet Mars, symbolizing self defense and sometimes aggression, was square to Neptune.
AMERICA'S LOVE OF DRUGS When I first wrote this article back in the late 1990s, my main focus was gun violence. But twenty years later, after raising my children through a huge increase in liberal views about marijuana, and an opioid addiction crisis, I think it would be amiss it I did not mention America's Mars-Neptune square in connection with drugs, since Neptune and the sign it rules, Pisces, are very much connected to them.
Four years ago from this current writing, in 2016, when the current president Donald Trump was running for office, he expressed his view that marijuana was not dangerous, and that the government should send the issue of legalization to the states, even though it is currently still illegal at the Federal level. To many parents like myself, this was a big blow to my desire to bring up my children physically and mentally healthy, without the peer pressure of culture and the drug lobby tempting them with escapes from reality through marijuana. It was, and still is is a lurid example of both America's Mars-Neptune square in Gemini and Virgo, which undermines (negative Neptune) a healthy mind (Gemini) with escapism through consciousness altering substances, and and its Pluto opposite Mercury aspect, in the signs Capricorn and Cancer, and shows the world yet again, that the government (Capricorn) of America does not support families and nurturing (Cancer).
This insensitive movement is actually encouraging Americans to indulge their addictions, and renders any attempts by parents to keep their children healthy, mentally and physically futile. And apart from all the professionally and research validated evidence (like below) that today's high THC marijuana is causing low IQ, mental illness, unemployment, social anxiety and homelessness, America also seems to be raising a generation of escapists, unable to face real life.
CONSPIRACY THEORY ANYONE? I sometimes think of the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, which is sometimes used as a symbol of American freedom. Why did the bell crack, not once but twice? We can still see the crack today, as after replacing the first one, the founding fathers decided to keep the second one, even though it also cracked. This is not a very scientific explanation, but nevertheless I hope the reader will consider it (perhaps after reading the Gospel of John in the New Testament which refers to sound with the words "In the beginning was the Word..." - or consider Tarot key 20, Judgement, where the Angel Gabriel is blowing a trumpet): the molecules of metal in the Liberty Bell responded to human thoughts of hypocrisy, which were to unfold during the early stages of America’s history. The American ideal is freedom and justice for all, but firstly America incorporated slavery into its system, and then guns. In my mind, these two abominations of freedom and justice are symbolized by the two cracks in the Liberty Bell. America has eliminated slavery but not guns from its civilian population. Perhaps when we do, we will be able to proudly display a perfect liberty bell, as our ideals will then be based on true spiritual law, which never oppresses any part of humanity in favor of another part, and does not use murder to obtain freedom at any cost.
While it may have been necessary for the founding fathers of America to include the Second Amendment to the Constitution, in order to allow citizens of the new county to defend themselves from the British, this necessity is now clearly outdated, and in modern times only produces crime and bloodshed. It is clearly time to make an exact and precise distinction between the need for a formal military to defend America from attack by foreigners, and a civilian population who voluntarily subjects themselves to sensible social rules, which include the banning of all but the least damaging of single shot guns. It is very difficult to understand why anyone living a city would need an automatic assault rifle, a hunting rifle, or for that matter, even a machete, so it cannot come as a surprise that some people have surmised that the government does not do anything to change things because all this unnecessary bloodshed is actually good for the economy. Just think how many jobs would be lost if America didn't need so many gun wound surgeons, blood transfusion specialists, ER trauma staff, murder prosecutors and defense lawyers, grief counselors and high security prisons. Not to mention the actual gun factories and outlets.
And when it comes to drugs, arguments which claim that profits and taxes from legal marijuana sales will go towards rehabilitation of those harmed by the drug, are circular and nonsensical. The government is metaphorically "robbing Peter to pay Paul".
WHAT IS THE SOLUTION? Astrology offers several solutions to the problem of American gun violence against its own people. One of the basic rules of astrological counseling is that we cannot change the karma symbolized by our birthchart. But we can transmute it by using aspects in their most positive way. A positive use of America's Mars-Neptune Square, would be for people to voluntarily sacrifice their so-called "right" to own a gun (Mars) and trust that if they really believe in the higher power represented by their spiritual or religious beliefs (Neptune), then it will be That which will protect them from any gun violence, rather than their ego-thoughts based on the illusion of separateness.
Another way of curbing and perhaps even eliminating the shameful use of guns is to utilize America’s Uranus-Saturn trine in the employment of gun and bullet technology. Uranus and Saturn are of course the rulers of the sign Aquarius, which is supposed to rule social justice and social organization, and after a tremendous battle by the Clinton administration, some guns now come with childproof locks. Of course the N.R.A. has put up some pathetic complaint against these safety measures, as they have also against gun registration, as they also have against the latest idea of placing a bar code on every bullet sold, so that shell casings from crime scenes can be used to trace the gun used, where it was bought and by whom. Perhaps what will eventually happen is that gun control will finally be seen as a health issue, rather like cigarettes. Victims of gun shootings will sue Colt, Smith and Wesson etc out of business.
FACTS That Uranus-Saturn trine, and Aquarius Moon also point to the Aquarian tendency to examine cold facts and science when it comes to social justice - no esoteric Biblical passages needed here. When I originally wrote this article in 1998, the Columbine High School gun massacre had just occurred. Sadly, my hunches about gun violence and the American horoscope were subsequently born out in dozens of other school and college shootings over the past two decades, in which hundreds of children, teenagers and several teachers have died. The cold truth is that the families of the teenage perpetrators had guns in their homes. I should also mention that many of these teenage perpetrators had taken, or were taking psychiatric medications for some sort of psychiatrist-labelled mental health condition - an this is another travesty of justice which America must address, as many of these pharmaceutical drugs have dire side effects, cause dependency and generally make people worse. And last but not least, we cannot ignore the fact that many of these young gun violence perpetrators had habitually smoked marijuana, a substance which many non-parents in America think is harmless, and should be legalized. For a more in depth discussion of marijuana and drugs in general, please see my article Ask Your Real Doctor Part II
In comparison, if we look at a country where guns are banned, or very highly regulated, such as Japan, there are virtually no gun murders or suicides, let alone in schools. It is not very difficult to conclude that where guns are legal, and part of a country's culture, there are gun murders and suicides. Where there are no guns, there are not. Is it not prudent, therefore, to conclude that if America really cares about life and liberty, that it should slowly find alternative ways of protecting them, which are not deadly? For example, do people really need guns to protect their houses and property, when insurance companies provide policies against theft?
The US Rising Sign Controversy Astrologers love to debate about which is the true Ascendant of the United States horoscope. Their back up "evidence" in these arguments is only anecdotal, but some people might find it interesting and amusing.
The Gemini Rising Chart and The Star Spangled Banner
Franicis Scott Key's lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner have been correlated by some astrologers to a Gemini Rising US horoscope, in which Mars (action, defense, weapons) and Uranus (freedom, independence) are in the first house.The Scorpio Rising Chart and Dollar Bills
The US dollar bill is full of occult "Illuminati" symbolism representing the number 13 and the sign Scorpio, suggesting an ascendant of that sign. For example, 13 arrows, 13 letters in Annuit Coeptis (favors our undertakings)
The clock drawn on the back of the 100 dollar bill shows the time 2.20 (presumably afternoon), and this time would give a Scorpio ascendant to a local time horoscope.
