CHART USA (Pt. Three): Delineating America

CHART USA

When delineating a chart, one of the first things to do is to just look at it. Is the Sun is above or below the horizon?

Here the Sun is above the horizon, which means this is the chart of a country which thinks before it acts.

Or maybe not. Given that the 20 Aries Sun of this chart is positioned in an Aries-ruled house with a second decanate/emotional degree of Aries on the cusp, that directs us to look at Mars - ruler of Aries.

And where is that Mars? Mars is sitting way up high in the chart - in the 10th house of government, governance and worldly/world opinion. That's a very public place, and in this position Mars would represent the national ego, the national drive to achieve, attitude of goings on in the government, how others see the US government and how well the nation as a whole and its citizens act in '8th house situations.'

At this level and because Mars is always an symbol of how you feel about getting things done (or having to do things), this makes the whole Mars/Sun relationship one about power: what one can do. Or, what one can demand, require or get because you have the ability to demand, require or throw your weight and power around. 

At the very least this makes the US (and its government and its people and its style of governance) assertive. Not always right, but assertive. And when it's not being assertive, that Cancer Mars suggests conflict - often internal to the government and often made public. With Mars in an early degree of Cancer, the indication is that this conflict is often about what people do. Or what the government wants to do - the 'wanting' part coming from Cancer being a water/emotional sign.

To have the national Sun and the house that Sun is placed in ruled by an emotional Mars in a sign its not known for always being either polite or patient in, that produces selfishness and some pretty childish behavior. Think, I'm taking my toys and going home! or maybe the ever unpopular if I can't have things my way I am going to stop you no matter how right you are simply because i wanna go first! 

Remind anyone of America's congress? Considering Pluto went station/retrograde at the oppositional point to this national Mars this past spring, 2010 and 2011 is likely to be rife with this behavior. But with that will come moments of stunning lucidity when the US government (and its people) begin getting that a nation cannot be run like a high school clique. Given how such transits work, there are likely to be some outstandingly bad moments, but once Pluto gets past this transit things should shift. Probably dramatically.

But that still leaves the United States with a dynamic and nationally egocentric Sun in an interactive house being ruled by a touchy, water sign (emotional) Mars in the public sector. So there's an instinct to think on a national level. There's also an instinctive emotionality which can undermine or thrown off rational conversation. The nation should work things through by thinking of things using intellect and facts. But emotions seem to often (if not always) get in the way.

 White Sands, New Mexico                                                                                           

While we're discussing this government/public profile 10th house, the very highest planet there ('highest' meaning its closest to the top of the chart) is Uranus. Positioned here, Uranus displays the genius of the modern United States as a nation of innovators and innovation, a nation which may be seen as somewhat erratic, but which is proud of its ability to tolerate dissent. And with this Uranus in communication-oriented Gemini, this is absolutely the mark of a free speaking nation.

Yet...there's another side of this (isn't there always?). With Uranus in the last ten degrees (3rd decanate) of Gemini - the 3rd decan being where you 'do' before you know whether something works, that says America makes plenty of mistakes. And that the nation (along with its citizens, institutions and products) is/are prone to sticking it's own free-speech foot in its mouth.

No wonder Americans believe so much in nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? And why it earns so much scorn on the international scene. This Mars-Uranus in the 10th is sort of a national blessing-as-curse: when the country is doing well, other countries are going to knock it. When America and its native elements act badly, everybody else does the big 'See? I told you so!'

Yet whatever else it is, Mars and Uranus at the top of this chart certainly tell us that the US of A will never go stagnant. The nation which came out of the Civil War, is a nation which has learned that when something doesn't work, you actually do have to try something different. Doesn't mean it won't hurt making the shift. And that there may not have to be a bloody struggle (physical, emotional, financial or governmental) in the process. But sometimes a nation and its people or its government or  its institutions just have to do what they truly have to do. Or what they're told to do. Or are responsible for doing in a manner considered ethical, even when that's terribly - even horribly inconvenient.

Therefore, though the US may have to learn things very, very hard way (as it did with learning slavery - formerly thought okay - is simply not tolerable), the good news is that this is a nation well-equipped to come out of the other end of such battles actually more clear on what national beliefs really are. The US born of the Civil War will at times need to learn its 8th house interactive values lessons through dire, hard times - like through war's death and deprivations. Or through economic collapse. Or through a giant oil blowout which endangers its coastlines.

But that's the chart. That's the way the US tends to learn. The same Cancer Mars, Aries Sun, Gemini Uranus which manifests as governmental bickering, free speech, standing up for the oppressed, a dynamic engine of innovation and discovery is also a magnet for karma in the form of giant problems when America gets petty, smug, stubborn or dug into bad behaviors, old points of view or resistant to change. So it has been and so it will always be: the 8th house Aries Sun of this modern Chart USA is just that kind of Sun.

And yet this self same Sun also speaks of a nation and national ability to not just learn from lessons, but capitalize and move on from them into a potent new phase. The US pretty much needs difficulty as a motivation. It just can't manipulate difficulties for that purpose. The US of this chart is destined to always be a world leader when it's just a hair's breadth behind the curve. Blissful secure serenity, in other words, is not this nation's friend.
 

Grand Tetons Park, Wyoming

With that much said, a next simple thing to do with any chart is to just look at where planets fall.

Most of the planets in this chart fall on the right (receptive-reactive) side of the chart, as opposed to on the left, directly pro-active side. This describes the United States (and its people) as being responsive to things which happen in this world. So we know the US will always offer to help in situations of international disaster.

This also tells us that Mars-Uranus in the 10th is about the instinct and need to always be reasonably prepared and to learn how to actually respond to a crisis and not get into an internal governmental dither about response when disasters happen.

 Sunset off Kona, Hawaii

Another form of this would be as we saw when thinking of the national reputation: when and where the US cuts back or becomes lax with regards to keeping up standards, those are exactly the resources which are going to be called for. It's a karmic thing - as if fate itself requires that the US remained focused on the realities of life instead of falling back on petulant bickering and infighting.

Yet for those who would suggest this is a call for the exercise of military might, that's not indicated by the chart. The 8th house Sun speaks to the ability to call on might, but not necessarily use of same - leading us back to that intellect-versus-emotion conversation. When there's good reason to fight, the US can fight the noble and ethical fight. But the US cannot campaign based on emotionalism or for manipulative (or political) gain. It's simply against the thoughtfully altruistic rules laid out by this chart.

And which pretty much echo the precepts of the nation's founding fathers, yes.  

Counting only astrological planets, five out of ten (half, in other words) are in one particular quadrant - the  upper right hand quadrant. Known in the horoscopic world as a chart's 3rd quadrant, this is where receptive/responsive (the right hand side of the chart) meets worldly (the 'above the horizon' upper half of the chart)...which means it's all about things public and interactive if responsive to information, circumstances, input, etc. 

This tells us that the US and all things American function most positively when being part of or 'in' the world, as the expression goes. It's not a hermit country - and if you live in America and are the hermiting type, you're bound to know that society thinks of you distinctly as the minority.

Another way of seeing this is through that old expression 'no man is an island' - which reiterates yet again why the United States is such a participant in world doings. Anywhere where you see a lot of planets in a chart is where the 'weight' of the chart (individual, corporate or national) is going to focus. With the US, that's in things worldly and interaction - small wonder America has such a tradition of power productivity,  power mongering, manufacturing and consumerism - replete with all the sector institutions which go along with all that.

A rather famous New York City street corner...

As an offshoot of same, with Sun, Pluto, Mercury and Venus all in this quadrant we have the signature of a place where not only does opportunity (Sun-Pluto-Mercury) abound, but it's expected  (Pluto-Mercury-Venus) that people should create (Sun-Mercury-Pluto) and take advantage (Venus-Pluto) of those  opportunities.

And when we leave Venus out of it, given that the other three are in the 8th house? Then we get a picture of the US as that nation which cannot help but be 8th house obsessive about everybody else's life (Sun) and what they're doing, saying or buying (Mercury) and all the scandals, sex and money wielding (Pluto). This triad in the 8th house so describes the US as a place particularly prone to valuing others in terms of bank account...and 'other assets.' With such weight in the 8th, America is absolutely obsessed with all things sexual, all people who are good at being bad and of course the US is a world leader in any PR being good PR - even when the news is totally despicable.

It's a country fascinated with being fascinated. But hey, that's part of the American charm. See it, marvel over it, talk about it, be grateful it's not you then go back for another helping, please. (Got any with whipped cream, maybe?)

And yet...this really isn't America's finest attribute. In fact, it ultimately doesn't even work. With the South Node in this rather 'loaded' 8th house, all the  obsessions (not to mention governmental bickering) destroy some, distracts from the reality of things and ultimately undermines a lot of real success. This North Node says it's easy to mistake acquisition for success; there's a national indoctrination of quality over quantity. Measuring people by such yardsticks is easy and prevalent in US culture, but not always productive either for the nation. 

According to this chart, the real 'answer' is Saturn/North Node: to contribute to the society in a manner in benefiting/being available to everyone benefits you. And that 'you' is America first and foremost. The USA cannot therefore remain secure in its internal national assessment unless it opts for actual quality, not simply a 'grand stand' as pictured by Venus (values) + Algol/Capulus (force of will being used for good versus  selfish reasons), replete with - since this is all positioned in the 'let me just broadcast this' 9th house - all the rhetoric, spin, media manipulation and advertising blitzes.

Sounds sort of like the history of America's politics, doesn't it? And well it should: a nation reflects its chart!

Given that the 9th house is also the house of law, religion and education, this also very much points to the strength of belief in and issues with same in the United States.

US Supreme Court Building (western facade)

Yet let's not forget - law is different from justice (the punishment or exoneration part), religion is not spiritualism and education is neither putting your smarts to good use or the job market.

Commerce as a source of jobs is 10th house - as is public justice. Since all 10th house matters carry with them a whiff of Saturn as Saturn rules Capricorn, native sign of the 10th, we look to Saturn in this chart and find it is in the 2nd house of values, resources and self worth. Conjunct the North Node, the US plainly knows what it should do.

But because this national 2nd house is delineated by an emotional degree of Libra, there's a whole Libra story here about what others think or will put up with/respond to. And with that Libra cusp being ruled by the 9th house Venus we're back in the world of special interests, who can yell most loudly, get the word out most effectively or 'buy off' (whether with money or otherwise) the competition.

And yet, the solution is also well implied here too. The solution to what may appear to be a devolution-prone  Mobius strip is a nation and a people who are willing to know better and in doing so, become dedicated to holding themselves as people and their government - and the government as an entity in its own right - to higher, cooler, less emotional standards.

A Mobius Strip: a one-sided piece of paper

(directions: cut a strip of paper. twist one end over once, then attach

to the other end. Put a pen on one spot and gently pull the paper

along so the pen makes a line without ever being lifted from the paper.

When you get back to the point where you started, you will find that

the pen has drawn a line on "both sides" of the paper. Voila - a piece of 

paper which you have just proved has only one side.

Remember...this is a chart which defines a nation which functions best when thinking rules the emotions - not vice-versa. Same goes for its people and other entities.

All this, and to think...we haven't even gotten to the Ascendant of this Chart USA.

Yes well...there's always tomorrow's blog.

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Dahmer's All-Consuming Mentality

Granting that the tale of the person, company (or whatever) is the whole of any chart, in the prime vertical and horizontal axis lines we can see very important basics.

The vertical axis is composed of the Midheaven or MC (the top of the chart)  and the Nadir or IC – the bottom of the chart. This is the internal line – who we think we are on the inside...where we have 'come from' and who we want to ‘grow up to be.’ 

The horizontal axis being literally the horizon line (Earth revolving into time as the present and past), the Ascendant (the left end - "9 o'clock") is Now: who we are being. The Descendant (the right end - "3 o'clock") is the impression we create – the legacy we leave in our passage or (after death) in our passing. 

Because the Earth isn't a nice round ball, these two axes are not always in a perfect, 90-degree square. But the distance between them - large or small? That is pretty much the difference between who we think we are and who we're seen to be. 

They're so not always the same thing. And oh, what a sobering thought that is, right? But educational - especially if you're someone who keeps wanting to be one thing and who so consistently gets seen as something else. 

Not that you're Jeffrey Dahmer - at least we hope not. For one, if you were Dahmer, you'd be dead. And if you're dead, why are you reading my blog? 

(Should I ask you to comment in that case? Oh, decisions, decisions...!) 

Back to the point - that being that the distance between who we mean to be and who we are seen to be can get changed. But to change things we have to recognize and reconcile differences which (yes...) we would so often like to think are 'about' or 'in them' but which in reality are in us. To paraphrase someone who was not very happy with this idea, if the problem keeps happening, it really is all about us. 

So with this said, off to the chart of Jeffrey Dahmer - a man most people know of as one of the most bizarre serial killers of modern time (making the term 'off' very apt). Appearing to many as a moody, almost shy guy, Dahmer killed male lovers though a variety of gruesome acts...which was apparently his way of trying to keep them from leaving him. It’s a story all the more horrible for being truly pathetic – and universal; his was a need for love expressed in a (literal) stew of bloody violence totally lacking in compassionate recognition of anyone else as a valid human being replete with the right to exist. 

Dahmer’s Ascendant is fairly unremarkable expect for being marked by the presence of Arcturus, a fixed star all about doing ‘the different thing.’ We begin to feel a bit of his desperation however, when we think of his Libra Ascendant as being ruled by Venus - Dahmer's Venus being at 22 Taurus in the 8th house. 

Venus is notoriously ungraceful in the 8th house. At home in the (opposing) 2nd where (if not afflicted) it manifests through self-worth as an ability/willingness to initiator a profitable exchange known as human ‘give and take.’ But when Venus appears in the (oppositional) 8th we have someone who needs to get from others. 

Even more potently, with Dahmer's Venus being in Taurus (native sign of the 2nd) he felt his self worth came from others. Or that through the possessing of others, he would feel his own self worth. He would 'find himself' in others - as many people do with all things 8th house. People with such placements (as sometimes happens with planets in Scorpio, native sign of the 8th)...there is a need to 'achieve self through others.' Dahmer needed input or validation (maybe both) from others to allow him to even begin feeling something about himself in order to then make something of himself, this being maybe a better way of putting the difference between planets in 8 and in Scorpio. The 8th house planet/symbol seeks to understand the self, the Scorpio planet wants to make something of the Self through wherever it happens to be placed (that "department" of life as indicated by the house). 

Bottom line, the 8th house is where we interact with others and test our emotional choices and risk ourselves emotionally. It's INTERACTIVE. 

So with Dahmer’s Venus conjunct Industria (industriousness), Sabine (forced imprisonment) and Fanny (the behind, literal or figurative), his way of putting his self-worth demons behind him and to work was expressed by taking his lovers captive. And sex of that particularly 'putting it behind me' sort, of course. 

(So to speak...) 

Just a side comment here, before we get back to specific axis points....In Dahmer’s 8th house was also a Sun at 0 Gemini. That defines him at least at some level as a mental naïf - any symbol at zero of any sign is at an initiation point, however you want to take that. In conjunction with headstrong Phaethon, this Sun speaks to Dahmer's need to keep doing what he was doing despite all: its mental compulsion in an interactive setting. 

To this we then add the other asteroid closely present: Charybdis – a sea monster (water=emotion) which says you have to keep trying and trying lest you get eaten up and spit out. 

(Yes, I said that.) 

The other end of the horizontal axis – the Descendant – of Dahmer’s chart is 19 Aries, a degree known for difficulties often including a ‘dark and fearful life’ which includes an early end (Dahmer was murdered in prison at the age of 34). The solution for  conditions expressed in this degree would seem to be compassion but with Dahmer, that apparently was not forthcoming – at least for others, though we can guess his choices were a gigantically convoluted attempt to make himself feel better!

But with the ruler of the Descendant – Mars – in Aries and the 6th conjunct Chaos, the effort was futile in the extreme. Astrologically, Chaos is ‘the void’ the great ‘undefined’ from which comes both the highs of artistic and spiritual inspiration and the total emptiness of fear, grief, loss and helplessness. 

As always – this being an important note in astrology – we need to look to the symbol ruling the house to see how all in that house will “behave,” good and bad. With Pisces, the first place we look is (primary) ruler Jupiter. Dahmer’s Jupiter is ill-placed in the 3rd house, telling us his was a mind which cannot be quieted. In Capricorn, we have the indication that he was capable of doing ‘hard things’ and going beyond ‘hard limits,’ which in Dahmer’s case involved murder by skull drilling. 

And why SO aberrant?

One explanation given by the chart would be the direct opposition from Jupiter to calculated Lilith. There are two forms of Lilith – the calculated one (which has to do with social/societal morays) and the asteroid Lilith (which has things to do with things in ourselves we don’t approve of). This being the calculated form, we know Dahmer would deny societal ‘rules’ – that ‘hardness’ image in the Capricorn Jupiter would ‘bar’ such things from his thoughts. It wasn't (in other words) hard for him to do at all - that we know from Lilith also being conjunct Betelgeuse, a fixed star about ‘ease of process.’ So we can bet that either Dahmer had little trouble ignoring societal values or that they didn’t really occur to him either way, for good or bad.

So saying, back to that Descendant. The Moon in Dahmer’s chart is exactly conjunct the Descendant. So those dark and fearful feelings are not only what he felt every day of his life, it is what he has left us with as his legacy. In the greatest and karmic sense, that he lived is a lesson to us all.

A very distasteful lesson to be sure, but a lesson nonetheless.

And that’s not all. The Descendant also highlights Icarus: rash actions and, reckless choices. Because the Descendant is not only what we do and how we are seen but about those drawn to us, this also speaks to Dahmer’s victims and why they became his victims. Also present here: Typhon, a TNO (Trans Neptunian Object) all about our most primal states and urges. (Link to article on Typhon.)

These qualities – the naïf, the primal urges, the fear and sadness in Dahmer…they would also be qualities he was drawn to. And that his lovers were drawn and which they possessed at some level -  defining the eternal like attracts like of human relationship inevitability. We will attract people who ‘fit,’ emulate or ‘set off’ most of all what we haven’t dealt with (in full) in ourselves.

And while sometimes those qualities are good, often it’s not so good. Why? Because how else is life going to prompt us to do the work we need to do on ourselves? 

Ouch. What that says about us as much as a Jeff Dahmer is simply distressing.

Moving on to his vertical axis, it expresses as 23 Capricorn/Cancer – with Cancer at the MC. Cancer being ruled by the Moon and the IC the other point in the chart most known as ‘public recognition’ this surely gives us the picture of someone ultimately known for a chaotic and fearful legacy. 

More important maybe…that that’s what Dahmer’s life was. When will we learn that to have such things not happen we have to care about human beings beyond their childhood years? 

People say once we’re adults we can’t be changed – at the same time everything in life causes us to evolve. We can’t have it both ways and the truth is that people don’t change maybe because they don’t want to, yes. But probably also because they don’t know how to.  

Am I my brother’s keeper? That’s SO very too biblical. How about am I a fellow human? Is it really okay to ignore and desert others out of preference when they're displaying a plaintive need. Aren't the Jeffrey Dahmers and other horrors known to dark histories an example of what comes from just that?

Even worse, when we don’t care about others (or the world) is that US being our own tiny version of the Dahmer who didn't value the lives of other people? 

All points appear in all charts. 

The foundation of Dahmer's chart (23 Capricorn) is a degree about excesses and difficulties controlling one’s passions. It’s a degree I happen to wrestle with myself in my own chart (no, I'm not a mass murderer!)....plenty of people have plenty of planets at this and other trying degrees. My comment about this one is merely that it's no  better uncontrolled than totally controlled – it’s the balance which counts. 

And which is hard. But that's a valuable lesson to us all, since all degrees occur in all charts - and considering the number of celestial objects out there, what do you think the chances are that NOTHING is in your chart at 23 Capricorn?

That's right - slim and next to zilch.

Ruled by Saturn, ultimately this is a degree which can only be learned through structured responsibility – which Dahmer evidently has perilously little of. His Saturn is in Capricorn. So Saturn ruled he was: his was a literally and figuratively ‘fearful foundation.’ That this Capricorn Saturn is sitting in a 3rd house tells us it functioned mentally and through his choices – and this is the Saturn ruling the Jupiter involved in that Jupiter/Lilith/Betelgeuse conglomerate.

I’d ask how scary is that except we all now know how scary that turned out to be.

And that this 3rd house had Sagittarius (sign of knowledge) on the cusp with the Sag ruler (Jupiter) in that very 3rd house? This is the snake not just eating its own tail by being consumed by the knowledge that it’s eating its own tail. This is torment and self-torment of a maximal, cognizant form. If you’ve seen any of the filmed interviews with Dahmer, it’s apparent: he knew what he was doing. He knew that it was wrong. He knew he was doing harm. But he simply could not fend off his own mentality.

Do we know that his aims were? That would be told at Dahmer’s MC, where we not only see 23 Cancer, but also Nemesis (a warning often ignored) and Rhadamanthus (dispassionate fair judgment). He wanted someone to stop him. Twenty-three Cancer is degree from Cancer’s third decanate. All third decan degrees are about things we have to put out into the world to see if they work. To see how they work or how to fix them. There is a danger of falling here, but only when like children, we have not been taught to climb.

Again…it’s a busy world. But at what point to business and the preference to pleasure one’s self become harmful? It’s not just parents and its not just Dahmer – it’s all of us.

He’s paid. His victims have paid. His family has paid. Do we all have to pay in our own way too not just for him, but for our own lack of balance?

It's that all points being in all charts which gets me. This doesn't mean that if you have Saturn and Jupiter in Capricorn in your 3rd house that you're going to be like Jeff Dahmer - it's the whole of the chart which counts and charts only repeat every 25, 920 years (even without all the 'new' points being used - the asteroids, TNO's and all that).

But there are no 'perfect' charts. That's one of the first things I ever learned when I started attending lectures with astrologers who had been in the biz for plural decades. And what that means, like the fact that all of these points are in each of our charts is that we all have challenges, some of which are nasty.

It's how we cope with having them which counts.  So there we leave it. I go off to continue being me and you go on coping with being you. 

And I wish us all well.

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