American Revolution Astrology

This section of the book describes the deepest crisis of Washington’s life: Transiting Saturn was conjunct his natal Pluto. Yet he triumphed.

Darkness and Despair: Bloody Footprints in the Snow

In the classic 20^th Century novel, Lord of the Rings, by JRR Tolkien, a small group of protagonists embark on a quest to defeat a great evil. They are an ancient people called haflings or hobbits, roughly half the size of humans, and this evil now threatens them with extinction or slavery. In order to achieve their goal, they must travel into the heart of a dark and evil land. The story culminates in a journey by two of them, called Frodo and Sam, picking their way through this land, called Mordor. The landscape they traverse is mostly dead. (Tolkien, who fought in the First World War, lived through his own Mordor, called the Battle of the Somme, July-November, 1916, in which more human beings were killed in a single battle than ever before in human history. He served there as a Second Lieutenant and was one of its few survivors. All his friends but one were killed, often in violent messy deaths.)

The two haflings carry an object imbued with vast powers, developed by a supernatural being, one who had already lived for millions of years. Some of those powers included becoming invisible, and also the ability to watch what kings, generals, and other powerful people were thinking, planning, and doing thousands of miles distant. It could increase powers of mind enormously. It conferred a kind of immortality; it stopped the aging process. This object had been lost in an ancient war. It had recently been rediscovered and had inadvertently come into the possession of the haflings. They were on their way to destroy it: To do that, they had to travel quietly through this dark land, and then throw it into the hot forge of the volcano where it had been created.

This object, a ring, exerted a subtle and unrelenting evil on anyone who held it. The one chosen to carry it had to resist that evil call. It had already corrupted and destroyed those who had previously carried it. The one who did carry it reached the edge of the forge in the volcano before it overwhelmed and controlled his mind; yet he was the furthest bearer to reach even that far. A previous bearer, who had been totally corrupted by its power, jumped out, snatched it, then clumsily fell into the volcanic fire, taking the object into the forge and dissolving its power forever. This whole story implied a divine agency that takes over when a human confronted by an impossible task seems overwhelmed with despair, doom, and hopelessness. Then, it confers grace. In the Tolkien story, grace was born: A new world was created.

A likeness exists in this story to Washington’s retreat from Brooklyn to Manhattan to New Jersey, and all the way across that state south over the wide cold river into Pennsylvania. Retreat was carried out in the grim, freezing winter of darkness, defeat, and despair. It looked like the hope and joy of the Declaration read out loud to millions in cities and villages of the Colonies back in July, 1776, well, it looked like this new birth of human freedom was over. Washington would be captured, taken to England and hanged, as George III confidently had promised; or he would ride to his death in a last battle as he often promised his staff; and the “new order of the ages” would die.

General Howe concluded the war was over and sent his troops to relax in the New York winter quarters with its parties, dinners and dances. Many in Congress were quietly talking of some sort of accommodation with the British. The Continental Army had dwindled to a third of its numbers six months previously, and even that size was fraying, due to ending enlistments, desertions, and death simply by freezing.

American Revolution Astrology: Deep Distress

For Washington, it was the deepest crisis of his life: Transiting Saturn was conjunct his natal Pluto. For four months, he had suffered defeat after defeat. And the British army kept winning.

What did he do? He kept on. He kept the army together; he managed orderly retreats, using his teen aged officers commanding artillery and specially picked-riflemen snipers: They did slow down the advancing British. When Washington reached the wide river, he got everyone across, being the last to step on a flatboat.

Trenton

Then he turned and fought.

He still had his army. Though greatly reduced in size, the army he had was made up of the toughest fighters. The survivors. The “summer soldiers and sunshine patriots” had been winnowed out. He had artillery, commanded by Colonel Knox that was as good as any the British possessed. The artillery branch had become quite professional, swift in setup of cannon, supplying a deadly accurate fire at the enemy, and quick in withdrawal. His riflemen and long-distance sharp shooters used the same weapons the British and Hessians possessed. In America, the British were not fighting horsemen with swords, or going up against savages armed with clubs, as they had in India and other parts of the Empire.  They were up against essentially their equals in firepower, and they would later meet their equals in discipline. Under Washington, the American fighters developed better and better proficiency.

Washington knew he had to use this army to win something. In a short time, enlistments would run out, and there was a good possibility the army would dissolve. He also knew the British were somewhat disorganized—their battalions and regiments were scattered all over New Jersey. He now understood that his army was just not good enough in a frontal attack. They lacked the discipline, training, and experience of standing in a line that would face charging bayonets and volleys of musket fire. They would run. Washington was also better at maneuver and surprise, far better at it than Generals Howe and Cornwallis.

He chose to turn and fight.

Many on his staff opposed his plan to re-cross the wide river. It was rash, ill-considered. The river might be frozen; frozen blocks of drifting ice might sink the ships; the army might be caught on the other side and destroyed. Also, the army was tired: Many soldiers were walking bootless, their feet wrapped in rags. It was late December and the weather was terrible. It was just too dangerous to try.

Washington did dangerous.

He knew the British were thinking the same thoughts as the naysayers on his staff—the British were reviewing all the same reasons that his staff had presented to him for hunkering down.

“We go,” he informed his staff. The army would re-cross the wide river on Christmas evening. The boats would be piloted by the same flatboat sailors, who had efficiently and bravely ferried his retreating army from Long Island across the East River into Manhattan. Over 2,000 of the toughest fighters would cross armed with rifles, muskets, powder well-wrapped to protect against the rain, snow, and ice, plus lots of cannon and howitzers and horses. Many things could go wrong. The password for the night was, “Victory or Death.” This statement was meant literally. If the crossing went badly, Washington was ready to die that night: If all were lost, he would gallop his horse into a volley of fire presented by the enemy line.

Things did go wrong everywhere. A battle plan only stays intact until it meets the enemy. Washington, by this time a general at the height of his powers, understood this precept. He was on hand everywhere to solve problems quickly. Large chunks of ice were floating down the river; he sent the boats in anyway, and they were just able to avoid the ice boulders. Boats overturned, but the survivors were rescued and taken to giant fires already lit on the opposite shore where they could warm themselves and thaw out. The crossing of the army slowed down: It was 3:00 a.m. before materiel, horses, and troops were all across. The plan was way behind schedule. The army was taking the road to Trenton, and they discovered that they had to cross two deep gulleys with streams at the bottom of each. Cannons and horses had to be drawn down one side and then up the other. All in the middle of a violent snow storm. He had wanted to arrive in the middle of the night. That was not going to happen. Dawn would have to do.

His army finally approached the village of Trenton from two different directions a little before sunrise (first light: 7:10 a.m.; sunrise: 7:23 a.m.). His artillery was placed on a hill. Then he attacked the village and destroyed three Hessian regiments of about 1,000 soldiers. They were totally unprepared for his army rushing at them out of a snow storm. Their leader, Colonel Rall, a distinguished Hessian officer, who had assisted the British in their victories over Washington in New York and New Jersey, tried to organize his troops. He was a good target for the sharp-shooting riflemen; the third bullet to enter his body knocked him unconscious from his horse, and he would die of his wounds in a few hours. Leaderless, his soldiers began throwing down their muskets. It was surrender. It changed the history of the world.

The Continental Army never had captured so many prisoners after one battle. They were all transported back to Pennsylvania. Some were good German farmers, and they asked and were allowed to stay, farm the land, and become American citizens. News of this totally unexpected victory spread everywhere. It was huge. The joy in the colonies was immeasurable. A light filled men’s minds. Talk of the end of the revolution died out. The war would continue.

A few days later, Washington re-crossed the river with his army, and attacked and defeated the British at Princeton, New Jersey. He knew his army was not prepared for head-on further conflict and withdrew it back across the river. This victory was another use of surprise and maneuver. Again, the joy spread far afield. The news of these two battles spread into England and all over Europe. Washington was someone to be reckoned with. This new thing being born was not going to go away.

Within the next two years, Washington would drive the British out of New Jersey.

The Astrology of this Battle

Saturn, the energy of timing, planning, and hard work, was now transiting at 1° Scorpio 40’, and it was trine his natal Sun at 3° Pisces 30’, and it was inconjunct his natal Saturn. The trine imparted stability to his attempt; the inconjunct to his natal Saturn implied that he would have to adapt to abrupt change after abrupt change, and then choose the right action that was required. Mars at 4° Libra inconjuncting his natal Sun and opposed his natal Saturn, implies the same thing, namely, that he would have to adapt quickly (the Mars influence) to change after change. An example: On his first foray across the river, riding with his staff to the outskirts of Trenton, he learned that a small detachment of soldiers had earlier crossed the river without his orders and had been harassing the Hessians for much of the night. They would creep up to houses where the Hessians were quartered, fire into their windows, and then run away. Washington was deeply upset when he learned this; and that morning he thought that the battle was lost. In the midst of all these kerfuffles, Jupiter at 22° Cancer 10’ was in a partile trine to his Mars/Eris in Scorpio.

This inconjunct energy worked differently, in his favor. The Hessians had been kept up for most of the night fighting these skirmishes. Finally, when they judged these attacks were over, they fell into exhausted sleep. Then the cannons started firing. The surprise he was trying to achieve was presented to him from a source completely out of his control. It often works that way in history: The great ones know how to take advantage of it.

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For further sampling the book see below:

Introduction to Book
https://www.historicalastrology.com/horoscope-of-george-washington/

USA Astrology
https://www.historicalastrology.com/usa-astrology/

From the Appendix: How Aspects Work | How Planets Work
https://www.historicalastrology.com/horoscope-of-george-washington/how-aspects-work/

A Deeper Horoscope of George Washington
https://www.historicalastrology.com/horoscope-of-george-washington/george-washington-horoscope/