Chart USA: Solar Return 2013

(Adapted from a stock image of the Great Seal of the United States)

For those who agree with (or who are willing to entertain) the idea that Chart USA is the horoscope which pictures the reunification of ‘a country divided’ at the end of the Civil War, there is a solar return for this chart which will occur on April 9, 2013 at 1:28 in the afternoon (EDT/+4).

 Chart USA - Solar Return 2013

 
And for those of you who are skeptical about this chart, I invite you to use it. (Check in the sidebar in the 'Corporate and Political' section for "Chart USA" postings).

Granting the huge debate about Chart USA, this is the only chart I have found which works. As esteemed astrologer Robert Hand observed, all the other charts for the United States have a void-of-course Moon. And if there’s one thing the United States isn’t, that would be a nation which is indecisive about its existence and willingness to speak its mind and act on same.

That’s not to say the US does it all right – just that it’s willing to do stuff.

Anyway…Solar Return 2013 as the Sun at 20 Aries with Mars at 21 Aries and Eris/Venus at 23 Aries exactly conjunct the 23 Aries Solar Eclipse Midheaven. Whoever is thinking this government (and nation) is going to get united and peaceful about what it’s values are, forget it. Eris/Venus is a sign of discontentment if there ever was one. The degree 23 Aries is known for confusion with the necessity (or “necessary evil”) implied here being to accept reality and deal with that.

Of course, when it comes to the United States, just what that reality is…? That would be the question.
With Mars as ruler of Aries and Mars conjunct the Sun and both in the statistically very active and potent degrees which precede all angles of any horoscope, there is a generosity which can be offset by foolishness and a need to not move ‘ahead of the pack’ (or the times) which is interestingly offset by this all happening in a 9th house which with it’s 21 Pisces cusp (with Kleopatra exactly conjunct and Kalypso/Mercury at 23 Pisces denotes a weakness which can come from too much or too little reliance on faith (that would be national faith or faith-as-in-religion)…and the Kleopatra intelligence of 'things foreign’ including foreign countries, foreign nationals and foreign beliefs.

And if you’re into the danger of all that, just think – this Pisces Kleopatra/9th house cusp and Mercury/Kalypso also applies to education in the US (i.e., the educational system). 

Burnished fields outside Benton Township, Columbia County

(photo credit: Nicholas A Tonelli, May 2010)

The dreams and commensurate lack of realities in both regards would seem to be where the US is going to have problems. Mercury in Pisces – under any circumstance – tends to exacerbate worry. So are all the concerns voiced by the government or the American people valid? Maybe yes, maybe no. Since Pisces on the 9th says you can’t just learn the basics, you have to understand the spirit of the thing even though many people will be up on dates, names and histories, understanding what that means to others is likely to be a big weak point.

Oh yes – did I forget to remind us all that the 9th house is also the house of the media and ‘information dissemination’? This should be a big year for everything from blowing things out of proportion to bad behavior on the internet creating problems in – and for – the United States.

To make this even more interesting, the 20 Aries Sun in this chart rules both the Leo Ascendant and the Leo 2nd house. This is a sign that what the country does affects its stability and security. (And that would be both its economic, international and sense of stability, inclusively.) Leo at Ascendant is very good when it acts with an eye to long term growth and a creative way of dealing with challenges (thinking of good parenting as the example here is probably apt)…and Leo at the Ascendant is very bad – even detrimental in it’s own (Sun) regard when it acts arrogantly or presumptively, as in ‘I know what’s best for you.’

Unfortunately, this Leo first-and-second house also speaks to a continuing likelihood of problematic young people and problems with how parents treat their children, too.

Still, on the 'up' side this is also a sign that important 'creations' and the whole idea of 'Made in America' may come to the fore - and become increasingly important. Even something to celebrate.

Any nation’s ‘business’ (national or with regards to its commerce) will be ruled by Saturn. And this chart presents us with a 9 Scorpio Saturn (retrograde) in the 4th house, conjunct Deucalion and – through Deucalion, the North Node. This points to a ‘wrestling’ with real estate and (Scorpio) debt on the part not of the nation, but the national populace. It also speaks to prices of issues, which may be approaching ‘fair or moral’ (Deucalion) in terms of actual value, but which are probably not what they were prior to the recession. Dealing with the idea that the real estate market will recover but probably not soar is going to be something people from all walks of life will need to (North Node) accept, and many of them will respond to this idea by saying ‘I don’t know how to.’ 

A rainbow and streams of rain filter down from clouds

over the Delaware River Valley in Pennsylvania

(photo credit: Nicholas Tonelli, July 2012)

This sense of ‘how can you say that to me?’ will continue into the world of investments. For all that the US stock market is currently way up there, there are many people who have never recovered from what they lost at the top of the market before its crash. The lesson in the stock market as a vehicle of risk is going to be one thing people are going to learn more about this year, and with fixed star Toliman and Medea at the 5th house Scorpio cusp (the 5th house is the house of all thinks risky and all risks we take) it would seem like some people are either going to be shy about getting back into the market (they got seriously scared the last time around) or they’re going to learn a big lesson through over-investing.

Which yes, suggests that at some point during this solar year there will be a major market correction.

This is actually compounded by that Leo rising and Leo on the 2nd house cusp: the stock market is notorious for correcting or simply dropping some measurable amount when Mercury goes retrograde in Leo (which it will not do this year) or when there’s a solar eclipse in Leo (also not happening this year).

What we do have is this Saturn in Scorpio and Mercury going retrograde in Scorpio during October and on into November, with a solar eclipse occurring in Scorpio on November 3rd.

This would seem to be a difficult moment for the nation. Pictured as a solar 4th and 5th house occurrence, this is likely to be something endemic or ‘home grown’ or of the nation’s own making which either makes a major shift or which shows up as a problematic weakness.

The signature here is 28 Scorpio and Toliman. 28 Scorpios is all about ‘superior power’ which when it isn’t directed towards social and societal betterment through heartfelt and open emotional support, negotiation and – to some degree – vulnerability becomes an energy which is highly problematic. Even dangerously so.

Oregon's Rogue River

(photo credit: Hamad Darwish of Medford, Oregon - October 2005)

Toliman is a fixed star which refers to ‘learning better through mastering of one’s emotions.’ This star is the foot of a centaur, with lore suggesting that this is the centaur Chiron, implying a vulnerability we can face, but which we are loath to tackle.

At it’s most unfortunate, this is likely to be a symbol of tragedy which has long range effects on the future. Scorpio is the sign of atomic power and we are likely to hear a lot about atomic issues this year (obviously that has already started with conversations about North Korea). But we should be aware that this is not just about some foreign country. While the first of Scorpio’s co-rulers (Mars) is conjunct the Sun and in the 9th house which – as above – would tend to speak to all sorts of things foreign, that Scorpio is on the 5th house and therefore below the horizon in this chart is about the US itself and something which happens (if you’re an American) in the “here at home” quadrant. And since the ‘outcome’ ruler of Scorpio is Pluto, that points to Pluto in Capricorn, here positioned in the 6th house of health, work, service (i.e., that we need to do because it needs to be done) and conjunct Facies (the million factors and facets which drive us all nuts) and Industria/Vega.

Pluto is also conjunct the Aries Moon-Amor-Photographica and Uranus complex in the 9th house.

In any national chart, the 6th house being the house of those who work for the government or for the nation puts the civil service, the military, operations like the post office, Congress and the states as members of a union (complete with their governments and civil service leagues) on the table.

The 6th house of a national chart is also its system of health care and its work force in general.

Pluto / Facies is the ongoing and seemingly endless debate about who is responsible for what and what needs to be changed. There is denial at work, and sometimes creation in spite of that. Or creative ways of destroying what could be, all as part of the desire to simply control things for your own personal end.

With the ruler of this solar 6th (Saturn) in the 4th house of the people, as much as the people may not like seeing bad behaviors in their government, they are described as being - at some level - equally culpable.

And afraid. But then, the government is also afraid. It may be afraid of the world...or how 'how the world works' is changing (emphasized by Pluto in the 6th), but they're also afraid of the people. And as all those who work for and with power do in such situations, they will tend to clutch ever tighter until they are either removed from power or they break the tiller of the boat.

Or the patience of the people.

The Japanese Gardens at Huntington Museum in Pasadena, California

(photo credit: Randy, son of Robert April 2007)

Saturn in Scorpio is patient, but not that patient. And even if things stay the way they are through this (calendar) year, Saturn moves into Sagittarius in January of 2015. And Saturn in Sagittarius is well known to be not-all-that patient.

Nor is it subtle. Saturn in Sagittarius tends to bring around a lot of 'backfires' based on shortsighted or narrow-minded thinking.

But that's yet to come. Meanwhile, here in 2013, Industria/Vega conjunct Pluto is a changing workforce and the need to change our attitudes about those who work and the quality (Vega) of the work they do.

Uranus-Moon-Amor-Photographica in the 9th house smacks of a buddy-buddy system and the whole ‘I’ll support you if you’ll make me look good’ sort of thing.’ On the whole, this looks to be a challenge to the nation as a nation to get past it’s ‘playing to the media’ as opposed to using the media properly to get information out to those who need to know what’s going on.

This is also an image of a workforce which can be at odds with its leaders or leaders joining with the workforce to better the nation’s lot. Looked at like this, the leaders would appear to posture and the workforce would seem to lose interest in working for a group of leaders who they perceive as not giving a ho-ho, snowball (or twinkie) about them.

Thirdly, this is an image of the citizenry and the way it would like to see itself – that being added through this solar Capricorn 6th house being  ruled by the Scorpio Saturn in the 4th house of the national population. The ‘I don’t care about others, I only care what happens to me’ is a national problem. The national obsession with ‘lookism’ on every level is defined here as a problem.

As is mental health. And yet, with Pluto sextile Chiron (which is conjunct ‘repeated challenges’ Achernar) in the 8th house, the health – mental and that of the commerce system – is still plainly in the hands of those who care more about their power (in many cases) or what they ‘get’ from the process than in doing a good job.

 Autumn in New Hampshire

(photo credit: Bluepoint, December 2005)

If the nation is a patient, in this image we see it opting for plastic surgery and Xanax rather than accepting the reality that life isn’t paradise and that with all due respect for Billy Crystal ‘you look mah-velous!’ routine, looking good and ‘having it all’ is less important than doing good and investing quality in what you do while valuing those around you and what you have.

Neptune at 4 Pisces in the 8th here asks for humility. Conjunct Fomalhaut to the degree it says that the United States must face its fears on all fronts, internal as well as external. With Medusa at 2 Pisces with Nessus just inside the 25 Aquarius 8th house cusp, the nation can face its fears of living in a world which the US does not control or regulate all by its mega-conscious ‘I-Me’ Aries self…or it can move towards recreating the lessons which will force the US to learn to be a nation of the world through problems in this world and with the world at large.

Is there an ‘answer to the quandary’ posed here? If there is, it’s shown up by the Part of Fortune (aka Fortuna) being positioned at 26 Cancer, conjunct Pollux and conjunct Byblis in the 12th house.

Byblis is ‘defending the indefensible.’ Pollux calls for an intellectually driven choice to give something up of your own accord. Both of these symbols being in the solar 12th house describe current trends to not take on these issues, however you want to describe them…as gun control, child abuse, environmental issues, climate change, drugs, drug addiction and the effect that has on families, children and the population at large, factionalization of the population along cultural lines (including immigration issues)…

These things are not being attended to. And since Cancer is on the 11th house natal for the nation, the problem would seem to be both commercially-driven (probably profit-driven) and because the problem seems to large for the nation to wrap its (Pollux) mind around it…at least well enough to make a decision and the sacrifices which might come with that.

Radio City Music Hall in 1996

(photo credit: Rick Dikeman)

Are they going to get attended to? Only if and where people get scared enough. At that point Byblis will stop being the defending of the thing which isn't good. Or the defending of something which works for some but not for all. And once Byblis turns to its positive side, as seen in this chart it would seem the whole of the people - the citizens of the United States - will demand that things get done.

But before that...? Expect them to be too busy with their own business, their own families and the 'maintaining of their own houses.' At some level, this 12 house Part of Fortune speaks to the need for the country to consider the nation it's 'household.' And to the extent that the people of the United States don't see their nation as their 'home' and everyone in it either part of the family or a guest in the house, they're going to make things more difficult for themselves, and their government.

And conversely, the government will do things which make things harder for the general populace. (Welcome to the wonderful metaphysical world of political cause/effect!) 

26 Cancer is a degree which generally manifests as a poetic image which is great if you’re an artist and not so fabulous if you’re a nation needing to deal with reality. With Cancer on this house, the citizens of the US and some image of ‘how things used to be’ or ‘the old way’ or ‘what we were taught by our parents’ or even a wholesale, word-for-word ‘founding fathers’ allegiance is described here as a source of not just limitation but fear, qualities which the nation as a whole (government and people) have to get past if they are to move on and grow into times yet to come. By having faith in its people the US does far better than to eschew their needs, rights and the plight not just of families, but of those who don’t have families. This is a Moon-ruled image of the ‘national family’ which the government is asked to shepherd, protect and educate so that America can not so much ‘look like’ a leader, but be a nation which in leads through grappling with the realities of life. And how ‘liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ has enough practical, real-time limitations without pride and prejudice being heaped upon them.

With Circe at the Leo Ascendant, the government of the US is likely to act like one spellbound. This is the chart of a government likely to pick fights at home and abroad frankly because the driving fire-sign forces for 2013 care can get away with bad behavior.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is at  some level the real sign of a rich and powerful nation – or at least a nation which is sufficiently rich and powerful in present tense to indulge in fearful ignorance.

Whatever happens in 2013, The United States is likely to weather it. Not perhaps comfortably. Not even happily. But the crunch is coming.

Sunset in Marana, Arizona 

(photo credit: John Hunnicutt II, November 2006)

A long time ago – back when the recession first hit, I wrote a few posts about US (and world) economics. In those posts I said that for various reasons, things were not going to change substantially until 2017.

To those comments I will now add this: come 2016, just as an eclipse hits the Descendant of Chart USA, Uranus will conjunct the nation’s Sun. And that means that some of the factors involved in that change will start being felt during the latter part of 2014, as Uranus moves into orb of the national Sun.

That is when the power, the energy, the direction the US is currently headed in will shift. Whether it will do so of its own accord and peacefully, or because it is prompted to by some external force (good or bad), that remains to be seen.

But the nation will change. Or it will be changed.

It’s really that simple.

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The Astrologer's Notes: Venusian Pesonality Economics

 October by Chase William Merritt

What to say...how not to make light of anyone's difficulties? The 'I don't have any idea what to do about it' going around is so a reflection of Neptune in late Aquarius, Pluto in early Capricorn, Uranus in late Pisces, Saturn in Libra...

...and this dollop of Venus on top? It's everyone standing there saying 'look at me!', 'pick me!', 'appreciate me!', 'love me!'....We're all so starved. Some for money, some for love - and most of us (at some level) for that sense of self worthiness which empowers us. Which allows us to get out there and know how things can be done, inspire people to join in.

Venus in Scorpio is hard. It forces us to fall back on who we are in a way which makes us feel secure. Add a little

Neptune in late Aquarius and it becomes a fog, a veil of tears, a clouding of our certainties. 

We just aren't sure. That strength which would be inspiring altruism melts away into insecure unwillingness to take a risk. And because we won't risk - because everyone wants someone else to fix things - nothing gets done. Nothing gets fixed. Those what have hoard. Those what don't have, hate. It's not anybody's recipe for success.

People resist change until desperation drives them beyond where they can afford to resist. They say  desperate times may call for desperate measures - which would be why necessity becomes the mother of  innovation.

Or muthah's it, I'm not sure. 

It would be so nice if people would let go of old ways and narrow-mindedness...but they're scared to.

Talk about being scared of being broke...Neptune in late Aquarius plus a Scorpio Venus retrograde? People are scared of being stripped of their beliefs, ideals which have kept them feeling coddled and cozy, no matter how wrong they are.

Neptune in late Aquarius is so the bringing to the for of all that. And all that goes with that - the blindness to caring what really happens when you care more about the ideal than the reality.

 Volcanic Sunset by Vincent-Phillips

Then there's the whole Pluto in Capricorn thing. All the problems in people's lives? That's exactly what needs changing. Where and what we all lose is where we need to focus our effort.

But I get it...it takes effort. It's very uncomfortable. It requires sacrifices. People marvel at how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly, but I bet not one in a hundred thinks about what that kind of transformation must feel like - not to mention that it's going on inside a cramped chrysalis.

Can you imagine?

Then come the moment your need to get out. Who thinks about the effort it takes for a new butterfly to break out of that shell? And within minutes or maybe an hour after that it's supposed to pump blood into its wings and take off and....what, fly?

Yes, it's instinct. But the process of doing all that? That  takes effort.

Maybe because humans think so much they think themselves right out of their ability to make things better...right until complete necessity forces them to fight to stay alive, yes.

Pluto in early Capricorn is maybe a our chrysalis phase. Part rearranging our parts - plus then forcing us to learn how to live a whole new life.

No wonder nobody's liking it!

Maybe we need to apologize to our local butterflies. We so take them for granted. We watch in wonder and delight. Maybe we should add a big "good job!"

 Der Schmetteringsjager by Carl Spitzweg (c.1840)

Then there's Uranus...rolling back and forth at the very end of Pisces. People think they can escape feeling, not realizing that what they're feeling which makes them want to escape is the whole and total deal.

And terribly unproductive. Like life is going to go away? 

We don't like being forced to deal with what we feel about our feelings - especially when our feelings are what we know we shouldn't be feeling. Or when we've been deluding ourselves that we feel good about something but we know it's wrong.

It's all about control - and Uranus says we don't have control and that scares people more than they can deal with really knowing. People know they need to change. And they know - somewhere deep inside - that what we refuse to deal with is exactly what ends up dealing with us...often in ways we don't like.

Escapism is so much more attractive than innovation. Excuses are so much easier than breaking out of our old mold, yes even if the old chrysalis is exactly what's keeping us from spreading our wings, showing our colors, shining in the sun and...yes, flying.

People say they have faith. Religious or not, they all seem to have some feeling life happens because it happens because that's what life is. I like the old metaphysical saying: unbeknownst to us, the universe is unfolding as it should.

But it's as easy to fall back on Bob Dylan. You know...the times, they are a'changin' ?

The only thing which can be entirely relied upon is change. Change goes on without change. 

I wish (that being a real Pisces term) that people would get that all the instability of feeling, all the disruptions of society - it's all about getting us to let go so that as Uranus moves into Aries next year we'd be ready to do and be something new.

Think they'll get it? 

Maybe. Then again, there are always a bunch in any lot who prefer to remain sitting on a stick.

The old is on its way out. I guess it's just not going to  vamoose without a fight, though.

And then there's that Saturn in Libra...do people not get that what you give determines what you get? Those having such a hard time 'getting' need to 'get' that what they're 'giving' isn't what people what to get! 

Oh, I'm hearing that Bob Dylan thing again....

We have to think differently. Do differently. We need to think in terms of appealing to people in some new way now that the old way isn't working.

It's either that, or change our name to Outmoded. Hi, I'm little Miss Outmoded. Got anything old and unusable for me to natter around with today?

Seriously! I so wish people would get it that it's pretty apparent how its time to pay attention to working on (Saturn) what we do, how we do it and who we do it to, with, and for. Our act needs working on.

Or maybe we just need to get a new act?

Hard choices are in the works. Wherever Saturn is, ends and pruning and sacrifices follow.

For a planet with rings, Saturn is not all that well rounded. It sort of behaves like a cleaver. Or a wall. Or a big, fat dead end.

Then again, with every end comes a new beginning. Something just has to pry our grubby little mitts off whatever we're so determined to hold on to.

 The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali

And there is that Saturn ruling Capricorn thing too. That so ties together the how we interact with others and the what supports our world. We're all in for some  enormous transformation and the easy or hard of that totally depends on how realistic we are, how willing we are to deal with the facts instead of resorting to our  whiny 'why can't I...!!' thing.

(sings): whoa, baby - there's a lot of whining going around.

I'd make a really, really lousy Elvis.

Whatever.

(A brief pause here while I indulge in my daily sulk....)

We've all been sinking into a morass of late. It's so Scorpio Venus retrograde. Life as a putridly stick torrent making things hard, harder, hardest...

...and oh, would you mind acting cheerful while it hails fire, frogs and hail?

People probably think I actually blame Venus retrograde for stuff when the truth is I don't. Transits only mark the time unfolding.

The fault lies not in our times (she said with dignity, striking a presidential pose) it lies in our stubbornness! Our reticence! Our desire to have someone else make the sacrifice or provide the offer or make the change SO WE DON'T HAVE TO!!!!

Unfortunately, that's just not the way it works. The job situation may be terrible, yes. But that's because nobody is giving an inch - or a damn. We're all at a Scorpio stalemate.

It's a big giant game of chicken out there. And those who retreat the most or hold on the hardest, they may well graduate from chicken to turkey.

We all need to change what we're doing or how we're doing it (Venus), who we're doing it with or the standards we hold ourselves to (Saturn). We need to get over our narrow mindedness and thinking someone else is or isn't responsible!

The truth is we're all responsible. For everything. And if everyone would give, everyone would get. Today's problems aren't about a lack of abundance, they're about a dirth of unwillingness.

And everyone wants to imagine its everybody else at fault. Trouble is, we know it isn't.

Somewhere down inside, we know we're just (Neptune) kidding ourselves. And we wish we were kidding others. Unfortunately we're not. And we hate them for knowing what we don't want to know about ourselves (Venus). 

 The Moon at Crescent Phase over Kingman Arizona

photo credit: Beth Woodrum (November 27, 2007)

Change is upon us (Pluto). We can either get with it or get gotten good by it (Uranus). That which is lost to some is lost to all, and the sooner we start thinking in terms of what IS instead of what should be (Pluto), might be (Neptune), could be (Uranus) and what we just plain want (Venus), the sooner we can all get back to doing what needs doing, reignite the engine of stability and productivity...

...which is - in the end, I mean - the genius of human accomplishment at its beautiful (and actually? Saturn) best.