Astro-Newsviews: Strauss-Kahn and Vicksburg/Mississippi Flooding

Dominique Strauss-Kahn
Charged in New York

 Dominique Strauss-Kahn, official IMF portrait (2008)

Dominique Strauss-Kahn was born on April 25, 1949 and grew up to be head of the IMF – the International Monetary Fund. By any accounts he became a very important and powerful man.

On May 16th, this very powerful man was charged with sexual assault. The offense concerns a maid and a fancy New York City hotel where Strauss-Kahn was staying prior to dashing off to the airport where he was arrested before he could board a flight bound for Paris.

As an aside, reporters have commented on the possibility that had this not happened, he might have been running for (and win) the Presidency of France.

But instead of heading back to the land of fabulous wine and haute couture, Monsieur Straus-Kahn was arrested. And after he was charged, the judge invited him to enjoy (...one assumes I put the term lightly...) some of the standard fine accommodations offered by the state and city of New York on Rikers Island.

In the initial hearing, the arraigning judge agreed with prosecutors: if one was to consider who might be a flight risk, Dominique Strauss-Kahn would seem to fit the bill. So with bail denied, into Rikers Monsieur Strauss-Kahn did go.

From the look of a lineup of transiting squares and semi-sextiles to the societal Nodes and 'what society doesn't want to know of you' Black Moon Lilith on said date of arraignment, it doesn't look like Monsieur was having a very fun day.

As for the International Monetary Fund, since it’s really not a great idea to not have the functioning head of an organization critical to global finance depending on using the prison phone, Monsieur Strauss-Kahn was temporarily replaced by John Lipsky as CEO.

And that didn't last long: Stauss-Kahn officially resigned (from jail) on May 18th.

 Current IMF Account Balances as percent of individual

national GDP (October 2010)

In case you haven't been following this story, there have been a smattering of rather interesting comments made online and on TV. One recounts Strauss-Kahn – who has been accused of such things before – simply brushing off accusations here and there with a simple ‘I like women – so what?.’

But this time, probably the home-run comment was made by a French reporter who in full florid accent considered Strauss-Kahn’s conduct and observed that it's thought of as being over the line…even for a Frenchman.

Even for a Frenchman?

By Thursday (May 19th), jail had evidently begun working its wondrous effect on its new resident: not only had Strauss-Kahn resigned from the IMF, but he was ready to offer up his luxe Georgetown (Washington DC) residence valued at around USD $4 million to try and get the judge to reconsider the 'no bail' ruling. If they want his passport - or to put a monitoring bracelet on him? That was all fine with Monsieur.

(One assumes the Warden at Rikers was either smirking or very hurt at Strauss-Kahn was so unhappy with his new accommodations.)

Transits from the date of incarceration to point of the re-plead for bail were full of aspects to and from Mars, suggestion a 'violation' of Monsieur's sense of 'what he wants he can have'...which come to think of it, is exactly what prison is supposed to do.

And that the judge saw things the Frenchman's way would be signaled by Jupiter conjunct Mars (in Aries). As ruler of Sagittarius, Jupiter rules not only judicial system but the idea of being able to expand one's world. So when Jupiter meets assertive Mars (especially with Mars in the very personal sign of Aries), getting out of jail seems a fine interpretation.

And that Strauss-Kahn has done the 'fair' thing by resigning from the IMF? We will never know if he did it in part to curry favor with the court but that idea would be consistent with Jupiter conjunct Mars.

Not that his getting out of jail didn't cost Monsieur dearly. Jupiter connections with Mars often carry an aura of 'expansive cost' (or earning, on occasion) and in this case liberty was earned at the price of USD $1million posted in cash, another USD $5million in bond and house arrest - complete with a 24 hour-a-day armed guard, the price for which is to be footed by Strauss-Kahn to the estimated tune of around USD $200,000 a month.

They say justice is blind. In this case, justice is expensive.

However...news reports have the original offer to the court having including something more. With Strauss-Kahn's willingness to offer up his Georgetown home, with the surrender of his passport and international papers, with the ankle monitor apparently there was one other thing: a stated willingness to stipulate that "even should he be found in a country which has no extradition treaty with the US, Strauss-Kahn would agree to be returned for prosecution."

But why would this be necessary if he was indeed not a "flight risk" (as his lawyer insisted) and as someone who has surrendered his passport?

It all sounds a bit like grand Jupiter/Mars gestures. Strauss-Kahn was determined to "buy" his way out of  less than pleasant circumstances and he succeeded. Yet Monsieur Stauss-Kahn's chart suggests his situation is unlikely to leave him 'personally' unscathed.

 Dominique Strauss-Kahn (b. April 25, 1949)

no time known/Aries wheel - no Moon

With Saturn moving back and forth across a 13 Libra natal Neptune trined to Juno at 10 Gemini, we have a pretty good picture of Monsieur’s fantasies and rather grandly domineering images of his male self. And that back in 2002 - when was similarly accused – Saturn was transiting the Gemini Juno end of this aspect very much tells us this is the marker in his chart for such behavior.

But this isn’t just Saturn trine Juno, no. This is Saturn trine Juno with Juno also in opposition Chiron in Sagittarius.

Looking first to Jupiter (ruler of Sagittarius), we find the big red planet positioned in societal/social Aquarius. So on one hand, it’s a pretty safe bet to think that part of Stauss-Kahn’s fantasy is in part one of elitism: I can do what I want because I’m… what? Male? Head of the IMF or whatever organization? Rich?

Let’s just go for ‘better than you, more powerful than you.’ Especially with Saturn – entrance/choice ruler of Aquarius - involved in the planetary picture, the Aquarian negative side of ‘societal strata’ (i.e., class and caste’) seems part of the picture.

The classic lesson coming from that would be how (a.) you can’t have everything you want just because you want it and how, (b.) where Aquarius is concerned, you have to function as an individual and within the group – by the group’s standards – lest the group oust, fine, reject or punish you.

And what better device to signal that the time has come for the ‘learning of the lesson’ than an eclipse? With the 11 Gemini solar eclipse now conjuncting his 10 Gemini Juno, opposing Strauss-Kahn’s 8 Sagittarius Chiron and trining that 13 Libra Neptune…

…especially since July’s 9 Cancer solar eclipse will also conjunct his 5 Cancer Pallas natal emblem of wisdom (or lack thereof) which is itself in a challenging square to a 7 Aries Eris (discord)…? Oh, it looks like Monsieur Strauss-Kahn is going to be taught (Jupiter) a hard (Saturn) Aquarian social lesson (correcting his Pallas/wisdom quotient) about what Juno leadership is supposed to be about. The combination of Neptune and Chiron in aspect to Juno? That’s such a clear call to consider others (Neptune). And to do what you can, not just what you want (Chiron) when it comes to all things Sagittarian. You know…like the laws and the Jupiter-as-ruler-of-Sagittarius poised social standard?

Someone asked me if I really thought Strauss-Kahn had committed this assault, or if perhaps he had merely propositioned the maid who then caught whiff of who he was (!!!) and claimed rape.

Looking at the transits for when this assault is alleged to have happened, we see Vesta (service) opposition Ceres (doing what needs to be done to produce results) and that pesky Juno of his semi-sextile (in for an ego bruise) with Ceres.

Something happened, that's for sure. So how many times does all have to go up in smoke for us to catch on that little Johnny is an arsonist?

As Monsieur Strauss-Kahn went through various legal hoops and the media got on the story his transits show Jupiter conjunct North Node (doing what one has to do on a grand societal/Jupiter scale).

This story is unlikely to just 'go away.'   

Whether or not Strauss-Kahn is guilty, the basis of the tale astrologically seems to be about losing mental perspective (Juno/Neptune). And how working to better life rather than taking from it as you please - how causing grief for others (Pallas square Eris) is something people around the world seem to hold as in common disdain.

As for his running for President of France and whatever else, a solar eclipse of this type, so prominently placed in his chart suggests that there is at least a three-year run before Monsieur Strauss-Kahn is going to be considered less than radioactively toxic by the public. Juno in communicative Gemini trine Neptune in the ‘what I put out there’ sign of Libra has given this man the gift of charisma which he has no doubt worked to his advantage. But his Sun – which is conjunct Venus in Taurus (a very strong position) has not been affected by this eclipse. It’s not even involved! Nor is his Nodal structure, one end of which (the North, indicating what he needs to do) is conjunct Mars, assertion.

We don’t have a time of birth, but with this Nodes+Mars structure as part of a magic rectangle (Vesta, South Node, Uranus, North Node/Mars) there is every chance that Monsieur can rehabilitate himself. And when he does that, he may find a better and more functional path of action to follow.

After all, eclipses don’t take away what we need, only what we’re used to and have been ‘making do’ with. That alone may be yet another way for that old lesson about how ‘money doesn’t buy you happiness’...thus there is a possibility - one we cannot without a proper time of birth dismiss - that Monsieur will end up living, and being in time actually happier living life as a farmer. Or maybe a grocer. Or perhaps a restauranteur.

Don’t kid yourself...Sun/Venus in Taurus? it could happen!

---

Mississippi Flooding Threatens 

the Historic City of Vicksburg

 Battle of Vicksburg by Kurz and Allison (c. 1888)

source: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

Some hundred and fifty years ago (in 1863, to be exact) Ulysses S. Grant attacked, then set up a siege at Vicksburg, Mississippi. This became a very famous moment in the Civil War, one which embodied all the brutal boredom of a siege and which proved that indeed, the side which controlled the Mississippi would indeed end up winning the Civil War.

More to today's point, that siege was begun on May 18th (and ended on July 4th). There are actually many notable aspects in a chart set up for the beginning of this siege which - thought I don't have any precise time for the start of military actions is set at 6am. Back then, most folks were pretty early risers...up with the Sun was a common saying. So we set the chart at 6am, and what we get is this…

May 18, 1863 - Aries Wheel (6am/LMT)

….but three seem apt to this moment. The Mississippi River is not just experiencing flooding, but some of the highest river levels ever known. As such, many towns and cities along the river - such as Vicksburg - are being threatened and damaged.


But Vicksburg is notable partly because it's so obviously part of an astrological cycle. So take a gander at the chart above and let's think in terms of the 'notable aspects' mentioned.

The first such aspect (one which fairly jumps off the page like a fish pursued by a 'gator) is Neptune at 5 Aries opposition to Juno at 5 Libra. Juno as a sign of ‘domestic leadership’ is very much the two generals facing off: Grant saying he’ll take that darn city, and Confederate General John C. Pemberton insisting oh no you won’t!

But apart from that, let’s remember that Neptune, as outcome ruler of Pisces, has a ‘deep water’ quality. Back then it pointed to the fact that the general in command of the water (Grant) would win. Now, with a flood on the Mississippi, it suggests nothing can really hold back the power of all that water.

This is added to nicely by Mars at 12 Cancer (conjunct Black Moon Lilith at 14 Cancer) in opposition to Pallas at 18 Capricorn.

Mars in Cancer is something of a surly combination which especially being in combination with Black Moon Lilith (the things we don’t want to know about our society or that it doesn’t approve of in us) back then would have spoken to the entire basis of the Civil War. The Confederacy didn’t want to know from slavery as an evil institution and the North didn’t want to hear that the South thought it could just up and cede from the Union.

This opposition being part of a t-square with Jupiter at the apex, it’s really another way of saying two things.

One, that America’s liberty and justice for all really means ALL – not just whites. And two...well, this being  good picture of a siege (Jupiter in Libra pictures the ability of Vicksburg’s commercial ties with the outside world, ties which were obviously severed during that time) it's a timely reminder of the ongoing debate (and   global commentary) on state-versus-federal funding, on 'one nation or global community?' and all such things of that ilk.

Limiting this for discussion's sake to the US, in a nation currently entrenched (under siege, one might say!) in a rather pesky, frisky, even fervent and a times vitriolic debate about whether the federal (versus state) government should have the money – or whether taxes levied at a “high” or “low” level are important, hardly anything else points out the need for such as well as a flood which spans multiple states. Are individuals going to fund flood control spanning the whole of the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys? Probably not. Will states make banding together to do that a priority? Uh, probably not.

The US of America is a very big place. It requires federal projects to run as a nation.

The flip side of this is that which has been spoken of in the US many times: why are people allowed to build in flood zones? It is, after all, one thing if you flood out a bunch of farm land. Yes, there are costs. But that cost is a far cry from that involved in rebuilding homes and lives.

People don’t want to hear such things (Mars/Black Moon) but the higher wisdom (Pallas in Capricorn) is to recognize that the federal government (Capricorn=Government) was designed intelligently (Pallas) to function as an impartial (Pallas) source of service to all…and that those who aren’t benefitted by a particular project in first person (Mars in Cancer) should stop ignoring the greater benefit.

After all, that lesson about the Mississippi still holds: whether or not we recognize it in everyday life, the mighty Mississippi is still a key channel in the life of US national commerce.

The last aspect to consider here is Moon/South Node united at 6 Gemini as the “object” of a t-square which starts with the North Node in Sagittarius and gets bolloxed up/challenged by Eris (discord) and Chiron (needing to do what you don’t know how to do) in Pisces.

Granting (all puns intended?) that we don't have a time when U.S. Grant set all into motion the Moon's degree may have been as much as some 7 degrees later...but anything more than say 4 degrees would have had Grant ordering the siege to begin after sundow.

In any case...back to that Eris/Chiron in Pisces. As I was saying...ah yes…deep water Pisces. It's a picture of discord (Eris) coming from the river...and a situation that we don’t know how to (Chiron) escape. Or do much more than cope with learning about as we go along.

That's actually very Chiron. Chiron is all about the thing you learn about as you do it and in this case, the experience of what digging in and hoping to wait out a siege against the North was something the South had not yet really figured on. Or experienced.

Positioned as it is at the apex of rich farming lands along the Mississippi river, Vicksburg has had its share of watery problems over the years, notably during the Great Flood of 1927. At that time Pluto was moving over the Mars/Black Moon points of this siege chart as Saturn was transiting the North Nodal point.

The lesson would seem to be that Vicksburg is going to be ‘under siege’ at various times. The current flood was  forecast to crest on May 19th – one day after the solar return to the Civil War siege chart.

Telling time with charts of the past only teaches us how cycles repeat and that the fabric of space/time truly has its own continuity.

Apart from that, it also seems worth noting that this flood happens 148 years after the original siege. Why is that number particularly noteworthy? Because we are one half-cycle through where TNO Deucalion was at the time of the Civil War. Time out half a Deucalion cycle after the start of the war and we have Barack Obama being elected President of the United States. One half Deucalion cycle after the siege of Vicksburg we have the US as a nation again debating federal-versus-states rights.

Will we get the drift…or be swept away on our currents of emotion?

That would seem to be what this flood is all about in the greater metaphysical sense.

And in real time? Well, back when, Pemberton finally gave in to Grant. He had to – there was no more food in Vicksburg. But as soon as he cried ‘uncle’ (or the military version of same) Grant did what Grant would go on to do the minute General Robert E Lee surrendered at Appomattox: he got food sent to starving soldiers – and in the case of Vicksburg, regular people too.

  Ulysses S. Grant (with the wife he evidently entirely adored

and son Jesse) at City Point in 1864

photo credit: The Photographic History of the Civil War in Ten Volumes (Vol 3, pg 13)/The Review of Reviews Co., New York (pub. 1911)

Remember that old saying about ‘an army travels on its stomach’? Never was there a general who understood that better than U.S. Grant.

And why was he so aware of the food thing? No, he doesn’t seem to have been a ‘foodie’ – Grant was known among his men for eating this or that and not really much of anything. No, his ‘food awareness’ came from the whole US military having gone off to fight the Mexican-American War - on the same side - in the years before the Civil War pitted West Point classmates against each other.

In that Mexican-American War, while Robert E Lee was already showing brilliance as a tactician and getting recognized for same, Ulysses S. Grant was serving in the Quartermaster’s Corps. Yup…his job was making sure his army had not just guns and ammo, but food.

Evidently that lesson took. All throughout the eastern campaign he dogged Lee here and there, pausing only to rebuild…what? Supply lines. Grant was not a general to run out of anything.

Thus we learn that though people can argue all the high-fallutin’ ideals they want to, when it comes down to it, basics rule the day. Survival reigns. Thus it is to be assumed that when all the debates and critiques are loftily aired that the Federal government will provide ‘basics’ and protect the ‘basic’ needs of its people. And because the Federal government does that, US citizens will live to love – and scoff – another day.

As for Vicksburg, hopefully it will be dry and well (re)stocked by July 4th so it can celebrate liberation from siege yet again.

We can learn the lessons of the Civil War now…or we can just keep repeating them over and over again. Apparently the choice is still – as individuals and an Aquarian (Age) people, ours.

CHART USA (Pt. 7): Transits and a Nation in Transit

A map of the United States and Terrirorites

One of the truly useful things about astrology is in the fact that from the time/space map which any natal chart is, we can then look at transits - prescribed angles being struck by celestial objects as they continue their orbital path around the Sun.

For those who wonder why this might be a valid consideration from a scientific point of view, the answer is fairly simple, if entirely metaphysical. Working from the concept that the entirety of Existence is energy (the 'E' in E=mc2'd), then we are each born as manifestations of energy - energy bundles, if you will (shades of kiddihood) - which are 'hallmarked' by the moment and position in that All of Existence-time/space in which we were born. And much like any other 'bundle' of energy, we would be reactive to harmonics as energy frequencies (time/space) marches on.

Those harmonics are created (physically and metaphysically) by the continuing movement and reorientation of time/space as a whole - in which celestial objects are a very convenient set of markers. They do not thus 'do' anything except what all celestial objects do: they move through space, they exude magnetic waves, they disrupt the general field of space-time by moving through it.

Astrology simply reads when those waves reach Earth. And for those who say 'yes, but astrology started back in Babylon' the answer to that would be yes. And obviously back in Babylon, people weren't all that up on Relativity and magnetic resonance and the like.

But we were still human. And one of the great things about human beings is their unceasing curiosity which, when coupled to the human power of observation often leads to great discoveries. (When we're in the mood to be observant, that is.) As it happens, people evidently started observing and correlating movement of celestial objects with things here on Earth back in Babylon. People probably would feel better about astrology if such observations had begun in modern times, but that's not the way it worked. Nor does astrology's origin in antiquity make it any less correct, as discussed in a different blog post touching on some correspondence I had with that most successful and open-minded of planet hunters at CalTech, Mike Brown (link).

In any case, despite the to-be-expected debates among astrologers about transit nuances (what, you think astrologers should debate less among themselves than  politicians, lawyers, clergy and doctors do? Why should we miss out on all the fun?)....despite that, transits remain an interesting and often dispassionately reassuring source of information.

How so reassuring? Well, one of the things about being an astrologer is that you tend to hear from people when they're having a really bad time. And when you're having a really bad time, that bad time is usually marked by a transit which has a beginning and ending date. By giving those dates to a client, I provide them with a sense of when they're going to see 'the light at the end of the tunnel.'

Not that the tunnel always lets out onto their land of milk and honey, mind you - but most people would rather be able to see what they are dealing with rather than stumble along in the dark.

So where are we with Chart USA when it comes to the big and wonderful world of transits?

 
Starting with the broadest of big brush strokes, the karmic and evolutionary powers of transformation (symbolized by Pluto) moved across the IC/Nadir (foundational bottom) degree of this chart in 2002. As discussed elsewhere in this series, the IC degree of the Appomattox chart (17 Sagittarius) is one which displays a native and innocent (rather purist) belief in God - or what one believes in, even if that is a belief in nothing.

That this time corresponds to when the United States began its recent, rapid and highly polarizing/polarized  radicalization with regards to religion(s) is notable. Given this idea, we can also say that this trend will continue until Pluto moves out of the 4th house that the IC serves as cusp to. That will not happen until 2019, so enjoy the debates. 

As of 2006, Pluto also opposed Uranus, a Uranus positioned in the governmental and most worldly house of the chart - the 10th house. For astrologers/readers who time a transit uptick when a major planet comes within the standard 5-degree conjunctive orb, that moves the date back to January of 2004, suggesting that domestic and foreign difficulties ranging from the war in Iraq to governmental disorganization when greeted with the ravages of Hurricane Katrina were part of a more karmic 'shakeup' of the nation.

Uranus - source: NASA

Uranus in the 10th asks a government not to be too rigid, points to the people's need not to allow their government to be too rigid, too inaccessible, too erratic, too detached from the national mood, or too polarized/polarizing in its politics.

By 2006, a lot of these challenges had become rather obvious. And with Uranus opposition Jupiter in the natal 4th, the division and divisiveness which began in the halls of government and all it was up to would then shift to the people, as Pluto moved on from 26 Sagittarius to 28 Sagittarius, conjuncting Jupiter.

Jupiter - source: NASA

As with all things astrological, there are pluses and minuses to everything. Depending on your politics, you saw the election of Barack Obama as either a big improvement or a wholesale detriment. Whatever it was on a purely political basis however, Obama's election (and the very serious bid Hillary Clinton made in that election) did represent a clear 'broadening' of the public view on presidential politics. With this being neither a  referendum on good or bad, it is wholly Jupiterian, since Jupiter represents 'expansion' and in the house of the people denoted the 'expanding' of the popular and populace point of view.

Currently, Pluto is in the process of opposing the national 5 Cancer Mars, a symbol fraught with disruptive energy when not used in a truly universal manner - the United States' 'We the People' credo. With this transit having ratcheted into full effect in May 2010 (and running through October of 2011) its 'orb effects' where witnessed as soon as Pluto entered Capricorn.

Interestingly, given Pluto's yearly retrograde patterns, Pluto first entered Capricorn in late January 2008, just after political caucusing had begun to greatly thin down the list of candidates. As Pluto turned direct during September in the midst of a crumbling economic situation, the nation prepared to head off to the polls in early November. Duly elected if not yet sworn in, Obama's team began taking over the reins of power as Pluto committed to its transit of Capricorn in late November and the GW Bush administration appeared to have all but left the field.

Cancer is ruled by the Moon, symbol of populace and economics. With the Moon of this Chart USA also at 5 degrees, it is no wonder that the people and American government are entrenched in a debate of economics and citizens rights. From immigration to health care to national debt and so on, we can expect these heated debates to continue through October 2011, and the discussions involved therein not to be even half-way sorted out until December of 2013. 

With all of this noted however, one thing is good to know: given how the IC of any chart represents one of its biggest tests, Pluto's passage over this point tells us the United States is moving through its most internally volatile period to be seen in the roughly 150 years since the nation was re-birthed, rising like a Phoenix from the ashes of the Civil War. (Which is a very 8th house image and thus much in keeping with a national 8th house Sun!)

Yet there is no question that the US is really hard up. The Appomattox chart shows a natal Saturn in the 2nd house of talents, abilities, resources and the national coffer. This is clearly a 'what you earn you reap' symbol. Not only that, but natal Saturn sits in a grand trine with Uranus in 10 and Juno in the 6th house of employees, jobs, health, civil servants and the military.

A computer-generated image-map of Pluto - source: NASA

This means that when Pluto first started afflicting Uranus, it also began afflicting the whole Uranus-Saturn-Juno system. So we shouldn't be surprised to look back and track the roots of fiscal (Saturn) problems which entangle everything from military expenditures to health care to Wall Street, big oil and the rest of it back to that time. Saturn moved across the national Vesta (service) potently placed behind the Ascendant as the economy collapsed and rolled across that Ascendant on November 2nd, 2008 (a day before the Presidential election).

That would make the election a Saturn call for dealing with the public's economy, recalling pundits tossing around the slogan 'it's the economy, stupid!' Beyond that, it would also say that everybody would be highly disgruntled no matter who was President during the period Saturn was to transit the national 1st house. This having begun on Election Day 2008, it will continue until August 2014.

Currently, the whole of the nation is highly disgruntled and about to get even more so: with Pluto squaring the national Moon and opposition its willful (loudmouth) Mars by long-term transit, Saturn is also posed to square Mars on September 8th and conjunct the Moon on September 14th. (Those who are political junkies may also want to mark their calendars for September 27 and 28, when the Sun reaches 5 Libra, setting these transits off.)

Having moved into the national 6th house of health-work/jobs-service in May 2007, Neptune's continuing presence in this house until somewhat after 2050 suggests the United States is in a period of long term discussion and development of its own understanding of what the term 'universal' means. And what it doesn't or even can't mean to a nation. Nations have boundaries - Neptune doesn't.

 Neptune - source: NASA

This isn't an easy question, though in time the United States is likely to invest in tougher standards for citizenry and foreign aid. Why? Both reasons come down to the Mars/Ixion/Uranus sandwich in the national 10th house. For one, no nation can be in all places. Secondly, other nations don't think the way the United States does. The US is likely to get very sulky as it concludes (reluctantly) conclude that they don't get to play (Cancer) parent to the world (amidst grumbles about other nations acting like ungrateful Ixion children). Yet in the end, the nation will either pull itself back within its own boundaries or like the mythic Ixion, get roasted for sticking its nose into something totally and entirely none of its business.

It rather gets back to the boundary thing: like many parents, the US wants to protect the whole world. This is emblematic and symptomatic; parents are supposed to be models of behavior which children emulate - a nation which demonstrates war-like behaviors should not be surprised that the world and its own youth pay more attention to winning than the quality of life.

More rough waters are expected in the short run as Uranus moves through the early degrees of Aries, squaring the Cancer Mars and opposing the national  Moon.

We've already felt the entrees of these effects as Uranus hit Aries in late May 2010; considering this is Uranus in action, the center of the dispute is governmental, whether domestic or international. These transits will come into full force as of April 2012 and extend through February 2013, suggesting among other things that the next Presidential election cycle will make this last one look like afternoon tea in the Queen's most secure, demure study.

These being only the most sweeping of broad brush strokes we could go on endlessly, defining and refining transits to this chart for the United States as a modern nation forged and essentially reforged at the end of the Civil War. Just to note that the calamity most people know simply as 'Deepwater Horizon' was marked to the day by a Venus return to the Appomattox chart shows how accurate the chart is.

As this series started out, between all the intriguing explorations of the chart has remained the essential question: what is the real chart for the United States of America? Astrologers have been debating this one for at least the thirty years I've been involved in astrology and probably for more than that.

It seems pretty astonishing to this researcher that no one ever stepped back and took the time to think of the nation not in terms of where it started out (working forward), but as the nation it is today. Starting from today, working back through the tale of years, there is only one point at which the nation came apart. That's what defines a national chart - a nation which comes together and is forged from disparate parts.

During the time these blogs have been being posted, I've heard from astrologers protesting that the Union never accepted the Confederacy's breaking away. To my thinking, that simply doesn't matter. The Confederacy was enough of an entity to have its own legal tender, it's own government, its own standing army, its own constitution and other nations recognizing its existence (though granted, they dallied with whether they wanted to go public on that score.) What more can anyone ask? So what if the North didn't like it - that's why the war got fought.

 Cemetery at Shiloh National Military Park

 
Ask a hard core southerner whether the nation fractured. You'll get chapter and verse on how it did - and by some, why that was a very good idea. 

As a researcher, the feelings can't matter. What has to be accepted are the facts. In this case, the South ceded and created its own nation. The North invaded, conquered, and subdued its former territories.

The chart which came out of that was the chart erected for General Robert E. Lee's surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant in a little borrowed farm house in Appomattox, Virginia. The date was April 9, 1865 - the time (as near as we can make it) was 3:53 pm, which produces the following chart for the United States of America as the nation which exists today.

Chart USA 

April 9, 1865 - 3:53pm - Appomattox Court House, VA

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CHART USA (Pt. One): A National Divorce

 

The Signing of the Declaration of Independence by John Turnbull

 

I want to go on 'instant record' here saying I’m not a historian. Frankly, I kept my high school US History textbook for years simply because it was the one thing knew I could just look at with the guarantee I would be asleep very, very soon.

Five minutes, max: no drugs required. 

Yet after listening to umpteen astrological debates I began to puzzle. No one seems to know what the chart of the United States really is. There are several charts for July 4, 1776 - that famous date of declaring independence. But should the chart be cast for the moment when people began signing? Or when the last quill hit parchment on that date, leaving its inky scrawl?

And maybe you're not aware that all those signatures at the bottom of the document didn't sign that day.

Fed Ex being a century yet to come, it took months to get everybody signed on.
 
Then there are those who like the idea of a US which became a nation while bewigged forefathers were dunking crumpets into tea while chatting over  Continental Congress doings. That was an even less official occasion, so good luck with that chart.

Into all this comes Robert Hand, esteemed astrologer, good guy and fine scholar.

Being his usual pithy self, Rob pointed out (during a lecture to a packed auditorium) that every one of the 1776 charts has Mercury retrograde and/or a Void of Course Moon - which would describe the US as a hesitant, even shy nation which never gets anything done.

Shy? Hesitant? Does this sound like the US you know? Okay, so we don't always like what the US does. But we gotta go with the concept that the modern US we know and sometimes cheer and sometimes groan about is generally neither subtle nor shy about things. There are even days when we think it might be better if it was.

As for Rob, he had similar objections to all the other charts as yet proposed, too.

Still, when one looks at the premises under which the U.S. was originally founded, the 1776 ‘we’re gonna sign this here-now document’ let's-begin-to-sign-this-thing chart is pretty darn good. It's elitist Aquarian Moon and a self-editing Mercury retrograde really fit the time and day.

How's that, you ask? Well maybe you don't know but back then the United States-ians were really grand about talking freedom, but not so good on delivering it. Considering that slavery was allowed, obviously not everybody actually got to be free. And then there were those rules which said only some could own land. And only some being allowed to vote.

It was plainly not the nation of today.

So what happened? To answer this fine question we should start by considering what a US national chart is really about. The United States is not a single entity: it’s a unity of individual states - a marriage of separate entities.

And when we consider the United States in that light,  the whole thing slowly begins making sense.

Look at it like this...try thinking of the US as a (poly-state) marriage. A marriage chart is calculated for the time and place when a ceremony ‘fixes’ the bond and two people ‘become one’...even though plainly they still remain two separate people.

So if we look at the US this way, its bond is all about a  ‘federal marriage’ or national fusion – a joint acceptance of risks and possible rewards being taken on by each and every state (allegedly for better and for worse, in sickness and in health, etc. etc.).

That being mutually invested this is a very Scorpio idea. In light of that, it makes sense that a lot of astrologers favor US charts with Scorpio Suns or Scorpio risings.

But if the US as a national structure is akin to a marriage, that means we have to also consider the 'traditional' marriage exit door - meaning divorce. How does that work?

When a marriage fails, the date of the final divorce decree indicates when the two partners become free to marry other people. But the reality of the marriage (the emotional commitment to the union) is over long before any judge's gavel hits decree. As anyone who's been through (or around) the process knows, the marriage as it was is over when the parties first file for the divorce.

Even if they overcome their differences, the innocence and purity of intent which gelled in that original bond...that's gone. Indeed, if things have gone far enough that the court has become involved, the marriage is re-established not when they kiss and make up (or whatever they do) but when on that date when the court approves dissolution of the suit.

Astrologically, this means a new “marriage chart” is required once any original pledge is quit (i.e., broken). Yes, the original vows become a romanticized ‘shadow’ chart the partners always remember (that being here perhaps that Aquarian Moon/Mercury retrograde 1776 chart)…but the reality of the marriage lived from that time forward is built on a new agreement.

And hopefully wiser people, yes.

So how would this apply to the United States? There seems little debate about whether the country started out as that Mercury retrograde and Aquarian Void of Course Moon kind of place. That's all over the history books.

But then came the Civil War: divorce American national style. And a bloody divorce it was too.

Civil War uniforms, flags and weapons Union and Confederate.

Now there are some who will argue that it wasn’t really until the passing of the Civil Rights Act (some hundred years after the Civil War) that the US really became the nation (or even began becoming the nation) it claimed to be in its original Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Yet astrologically, that just doesn’t work.

Why not?

Because said Civil Rights Act was not part of creating a nation. It thus therefore cannot generate a new national chart. It's a 'working inside the given’ sort of document, which astrologically means it should coincide with a transit to any valid US chart. The Civil Rights Act was a big deal so the transit should be a major transit. But it isn't the sort of motion which creates a new chart.

No, the United States only broke apart once - with the beginning of the Civil War, a national divorce action if there ever was one. The South filed and moved out. And to be sure, the North contested said divorce. But the moment that the Confederacy declared itself and established its capital, leader and constitution, the 1776 ‘marriage’ – for all astrological purposes it was over.

And no, there is no divorce court for nations. It might be better if there was, but there isn't.

Following the 'it was over' logic, the union we now call the United States would have been be ‘born’ when war ended and the nation was officially remade into one - the ‘remarriage,’ if you will.

And when was that? That chart would be timed by General Robert E. Lee approving the document of surrender at war’s end, an event which took place in a private home borrowed from a gentleman named McLean in a little Virginia spot known as Appomattox Court House.

McLean Residence in Appomattox Court House

Records show the meeting between Lee and Grant began at 1:30 p.m. on April 9, 1865. But Lee didn’t finalize his (the South’s) side of the peace treaty until ‘just before 4 p.m.’ - the delay being due to rewording Lee required before signing on.

According to reports by persons in the room, after surveying the document one last time, Lee approved, accepted the stated terms then stood up to have a short conversation with Grant. After that he left, with the time of his departure being noted as 4 p.m. In light of these reports (with additional checking of events against both resulting chart axis) the reasonable rectification therefore puts the time of signing at 3:53 in the afternoon.
 

Actually the Treaty was not actually signed at this moment, due to (of all things!) a lack of ink and paper to recopy General Lee’s requested changes. And this for some may recall President Obama taking his Oath of Office twice. The answer to 'which is right?' here lies in the moment of commitment: when when we actually commit to something is the moment for which the chart should be erected reflecting that event. The Obama Administration thus began when the President took the  Oath of Office the first time - just as the Civil War ended when General Lee accepted Grant's terms for peace.

And never mind the ink...in that moment the South laid down arms. In that moment, soldiers on both sides rushed to embrace each other as country and kinsmen once again. In that moment the North’s supply corps began moving in to feed an estimated 25,000 hungry Confederate troops. That's the end of a war.

But if we need more validation, we have that too - in the form of a governmental nod from President Lincoln. Upon returning from Richmond to news of Lee's  surrendered, Lincoln walked out onto the White House balcony and with fireworks exploding overhead, made a short speech acknowledging that as the South surrendered at Appomattox, war had ended and the nation had again become one.

That unity bond in federal marriage is reflected in the chart below, horoscope erected for 3:53 on that fateful afternoon in Appomattox Court House, Virginia.

Chart USA(ppomattox) - End of Civil War 

It's an interesting chart, this Chart USA(ppomattox). And yes, the events of a nation in years since are seen reflected by transits to its various points.

Starting tomorrow we'll start walking through just what this chart says. But in the meantime, to Robert Hand: 'look Rob - no VOC Moon and no Mercury retrograde!'  

See you all tomorrow back here at astroPPM.