USA Astrology

This section of the book Washington, An Astrological Memoir, covers USA astrology, especially the restructuring of the Articles of Confederation, which was not working very well. It is about the US Constitution and its founding. It demonstrates Washington’s influence all through the restructuring efforts of the Founders.

Constitutional Convention

On May 13, 1787, Washington and Madison arrive in Philadelphia. Pluto trines Neptune (closing), both at 16° Aquarius. Saturn is at 28° Aquarius retrograde: It will move back to 23° Aquarius by Sept 17. By September 17th, 1787, Saturn had moved back to within 9° of conjunction to Pluto.

Saturn will conjunct Washington’s natal Sun, exact for the first time March 7, 1788, Rx at 4° 11’ Nov. 7 1778, stationary all November. The Election began 15 Dec. 1788: SA at 5°22’ Pisces was conjunct his Sun. Pluto at 15° Aquarius was trine his natal Pluto. Uranus was inconjunct his natal Sun by the end of December. The election ran to Jan. 10 1789.

What Events Led Up to the Restructuring of Government?

Washington had averted a military coup. The occupying British army had left America. The freedom from the mother country was established; the new republic was born. Things began to settle down. The first written constitution, the Articles of Confederation, which was ratified March 1, 1781, essentially attempted to create a government by legislature, modeled on the British parliament.

Financially, the government was weak. The Congress could print paper money, not backed up by gold, and so the money in circulation was highly inflationary. And it could not tax the States. It could not even collect what taxes had been agreed upon. The States were fighting each other over tariffs and taxes. Some states were conducting their own foreign policies. There was really no executive power built into this body of law. The British Parliament had always been led by a prime minister. No such provision existed in the Articles of Confederation.

In Massachusetts, many soldiers who had fought in the war, who had never been paid what was promised to them, came home to find their homes and farms were being taken for non-payment of taxes. Shay’s Rebellion developed, named after a Captain Daniel Shays.

Captain Shays was a distinguished officer and a charismatic American hero of the American Revolution, fighting courageously at Lexington and Saratoga; he was awarded an ornamental sword by General Lafayette in 1780 for his heroism. The rebellion he led had numbered over 4000 members, and it was well organized. It looked like it would tear apart the State of Massachusetts. After taking over Massachusetts, its leaders planned to spread it to other colonies. The weak legislative government of Massachusetts could not come up with a defense against this rebellion.

A private army (which means it was paid for with privately raised funds) was raised and equipped under the command of General Lincoln, an American Revolution general who had served at Yorktown. He destroyed the rebel army by marching on its encampments in the middle of a winter storm and defeating it. Still, it was a scary situation: Captain Shays had taken over several towns and was imposing his own law; if allowed to continue, this movement could have turned into an anarchic revolution.

People breathed freely again: The anarchy receded.  What remained were legitimate worries, and something had to be done.

Pluto and Saturn at the time of Shays Rebellion (Aug. 29, 1786) were in a synodic conjunction located at 13° Aquarius, which was inconjunct America’s 13° Cancer Sun (Declaration chart). The inconjunct is an aspect of rearrangement, sometimes of sudden change, and even rebellion, but usually it is a call for change, as when things not working need to be fixed. In affairs of state, this energy can indicate a separation or departure from the old ways of doing things.

Shay’s Rebellion made clear to the Founders that the present government under its present laws was weak and dysfunctional. It became clear to everyone that changes had to be made. Many feared that the Union would fall apart into several weak nations. Small states could invite possible invasions from Spain, France, and Britain. The choice was to change or die.

That summer in 1787, many of the best political thinkers in America gathered in Philadelphia to create a new structure of government. Congress was weak; it lacked a central government endowed with taxing and other enforcement powers. The advantage America in its Revolution had was that many of its involved philosopher statesmen constituted some of the finest political minds the human race has ever produced. Thomas Jefferson, who was serving at the time as ambassador in France, said, “It is really an assembly of demigods”. He was right. Attendees’ names included George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton. There were others, not as well remembered: John Dickinson, John Rutledge, Roger Sherman, and George Mason, to name a few. “Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm”, Madison warned in Federalist 10. They were there in Philadelphia in that summer of 1787.

What Were the Issues?

The population of the young republic was made up of mostly British peoples. It was thoroughly British in outlook. America grew out of thirteen British colonies. At this time, the culture of the new nation was a little over a century and a half old. For most of those years, as colonies, they had been left alone by the mother country. The key fact in their present situation was that they lived under and were used to living under the percepts of the ancient British constitution. Being left alone, mostly, and living under the British constitution meant that they had their own legislatures, and they even had the power of the purse when paying their governors, as did Parliament over the expenditures of the king. These legislatures were modeled on the English Parliament. The Virginia House of Burgesses styled itself as the second oldest parliament in the world.

English common law was born in 1215 AD at the signing of the Magna Charta, a charter defining basic human rights. Common law developed through many other charters, great and small, like the Great Charter of 1287, writs of habeas corpus (first used in 1305), a Petition of Rights (1628), then—well-known to the Founders—the Bill of Rights of 1689. The gradual development of human freedom and the rights of man occurred in England for over 500 years. This is what is found in the written and unwritten body of law and custom called the British Constitution.

In Colonial America in the late 18th Century, it was just as powerful a force and influence as it was in England.

When Americans fought in the war, they asserted they were fighting for those ancient English liberties and rights. It was these ancient laws and basic human rights, so hard-fought for by each generation in England, that in America, in Philadelphia, after eight and a half years of hard fighting, they would now seek to embed them into a written constitution. It is from these sources of ancient English common law that they would seek to form a “more perfect union”.

Precepts that went into this constitution were:

Above all, the rule of law. The 1689 Bill of Rights, especially in its Articles 1 and 2, limits the power of the sovereign (that is, no one stands above the law, not even the King).

Consent of the governed. From the first 1/3^rd section of the Declaration:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

This means that your life, your freedom and your pursuit of happiness (often accumulating private property, keeping what you have earned, whether it is real property or a patent or a book you have written or what you have inherited, etc.) are given to you as a right by your Creator, by God. These are unalienable rights, that is, they do not come to you from government, bureaucrats, or politicians, and they cannot be taken away from you by these, except under law, and that law is very tough to get around. It was organized to protect life and liberty and property, and to limit the power of the state over the individual.

The Founders were serious students of philosophical history. They believed that the best form of government was the republic, if it were structured well. They studied the politics of Antiquity, the Renaissance, the Reformation, the 1649 revolution in England, and the Glorious Revolution of 1689. They believed that republics were the highest form of government. Why? Republics, being free, produced the highest civilizations, the best people, the fairest laws, and the highest arts. Republics, when functioning well, were the best for their citizens. The best governments prospered their people, not their rulers. The Founders had studied Aristotle (Thomas Jefferson’s favorite), Livy, Cicero, Polybius. They also studied Plutarch, the ancient Greek historian, who was a much loved teacher. They studied Machiavelli (especially his Discourses on the Roman republic) and Francis Bacon and others. More recently, they had studied Montesquieu, Locke, and Blackstone. Some of these men would produce writings that were on the same level as the ancient philosophers. The Federalist, authored by Madison, Hamilton and Jay, is certainly on that level. In seeking to fashion a republic of free peoples, studying examples from the ancient Roman republic, and studying examples from British history, they asserted that a republic works best when the power is divided up, when there is a separation of powers. “Ambition must be made to counteract ambition,” as Madison would have it (Federalist 51). That concept would be written into the Constitution. The philosophy of separation of powers is ancient, and it can be traced back to the Greek city-state of Sparta, a military republic, where it was successfully practiced for centuries.

In his era, Washington was a demi-god. He had concluded a war that no one else, not even remotely, could have won. He won it despite little financial support from Congress, and conspiracies to remove him from command. Especially impressive was that he won despite an opposing army that was the most powerful in the world. After fulfilling his command honorably, he relinquished all his vast power back to the civilian authority. If you want to know how hard it is to let go that kind of power, look to the examples of Julius Caesar, Oliver Cromwell, and Napoleon.

Washington would soon demonstrate his gifts as one of the greatest statesmen in history.

On May 25, 1787, he was nominated as President of the Constitutional Convention by Robert Morris of Pennsylvania, and this nomination was immediately seconded by John Rutledge of South Carolina. The vote was unanimous.  He was escorted in a ceremonious manner to the President’s Chair.

USA Astrology: A More Perfect Union

The goal of this assembly was to devise a more perfect union. The assembly was made up of statesmen of high accomplishment. They had all observed the mess created by the present ruling Congress. The Continental Congress suffered from the problems of a weak ruling legislature: It lacked a strong executive who could make quick decisions when needed: It also lacked a strong but just taxing power. Those assembled at Philadelphia saw their union slipping deeper into debt; they knew that in many revolutions new governments are destroyed by their unpaid debts.

In Philadelphia that summer, arriving early, Washington, Madison, and Franklin often met to discuss what kind of a government they wanted to form this more perfect union. They debated the propositions already formulated in what was called the Virginia Plan, a monograph authored by Madison. The ideas in the Virginia Plan had been bandied about for many years. In that sense, the Virginia Plan stated nothing new. Their goal was to take these ideas and put them into a new structure of government. Achieving that goal would involve a long hot summer of talk and compromise.

This new government’s structure would be composed of three parts, an executive, a legislature, and a judiciary, each essentially structured on the ideas of British Common Law. It would take those hard-won liberties and laws that had been fought for over five hundred years, and organize them into the new government, into a written constitution. It would embody ideas such as those discussed in Montesquieu’s Spirit of the Laws, one of the great books of that age, which and been read and studied by all the Founders. This book discussed the concept of separation of powers, and how this separation contributes to the thriving of free peoples. Separation of powers was one of the driving ideas behind the success of the ancient Roman Republic, also of the ancient Republic of Sparta. Its goal was to insure that there was no absolute center of power in government. In Constitutional law, there would be three centers of power, each contending against the other.

The Convention’s final product would also incorporate the ideas of John Locke. He argued several major precepts in his philosophical writings: religious freedom and the sacredness of private property and the “laws of nature”. This argument says that private property and liberty and life derive from “the laws of nature” created by a Higher Power, God, and that these laws are irrefutable and cannot be obviated by nobles or kings or bureaucrats or politicians without a rigorous due process under the law. This “law of nature” has also been called the Way, the Tao, and it is found in many civilizations, ancient and modern.

It was written into the Declaration that “all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness [property]”. Today, that protection of property is found in the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution (“nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”).  The religious tolerance discussed by Locke evolved into religious freedom (“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…) and is found in the First Amendment. The Constitution itself would be structured to protect “the laws of nature”.

Piece by piece, this new governmental structure was molded. To get this structure built and in place they agreed on adjustments and compromises. Slavery was the worst compromise: That would be worked out almost exactly three Saturn Returns later (or generations), measured from the date of the Declaration to November 19, 1863, when Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg address, and transiting Saturn was making a partile conjunction to the Declaration Saturn, (for more on the meaning of that war, see Lincoln’s “four score and seven years ago” address). This war left over 600,000 dead, but slavery was abolished.

What Did They Achieve in the Law?

First, Congress was formed (Article 1), mostly on the roughly same model as the British parliament, with an upper house and a lower house. As the House of Representatives represented the people, and as it was chosen by them, it would be the most powerful branch. The upper house, the Senate, would act as a brake to hysteria those times when the lower house went mad and bent totally to the popular will. In ancient Athens, the ecclesia, the popular assembly ruled everything, and was a pure democracy, almost the first and last in history (they tried it in France for a few months during the French Revolution). The ecclesia ended up destroying the Athenian Empire due to the many bad decisions made in the fury of the moment, and its policies led to the defeat of Athens by Sparta in the Peloponnesian War.

Then, the Executive (Article 2). The Executive was an entirely new constitutional creation, very different from the prime minister chosen out of the British Parliament. The president was to be given powers greater than any king in Europe ever possessed. These great powers were to be used in crises, as they were used by Jackson, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and a few others. The executive model was roughly built on the dictators elected by the Roman senate in a time of crisis. The word “dictator’ in that time possessed a different meaning than it has today: It was the temporary election in a crisis of state of a strong man given extraordinary powers, even of life and death, who after solving the crisis, laid down his powers.

At other times in American history, the executive would be quite weak, as evidenced by most 19^th century presidents. In the Constitution, the executive was limited by the appointment process approval given to the Senate, and the power of spending public monies and taxing was given to the House. The power was spread around.

The Judiciary (Article 3) was to be independent, and means were emplaced to make it incorruptible. It was designed to be the weakest of the branches. The idea was the rulers did not exert control over the judges after they had been appointed. This is where separation of powers functions. The judges could push back against bad laws, could protect the Constitution, as they did in much of the Great Depression, and in many other periods of American history.

What the Founders finally came up with was a body of law that would create a new republic, one that really had never been created before, a new order of the ages. The ideas involved in the creation of this structure and how they work, are best laid out in the Federalist Papers, a series of philosophical essays published in newspapers and authored by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay. Federalist comprises some of the finest political philosophy ever written about the formation and operation of republics. This is the blueprint for the creation of a government of free peoples.

 Chart of the September 17, 1787 Constitution

This USA astrology chart places the Moon in the 10th, possibly on the Mid Heaven of the Declaration chart. The Moon is the people in any chart of state. It sits in the 10^th House of the chart of the Constitution. This placement infers that “We the people” rule. The power of the rulers (Capricorn, 10th House) derives only from consent of the governed (the people, the Moon). The preamble of the Constitution begins:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Mars at 3° Cancer loosely conjunct Jupiter is exactly conjunct the Declaration Venus (3° Cancer). The Founders were quite assertive about the protection of private property (Venus rules private property). This Mars is loosely conjunct Jupiter, and the Constitution implies clearly that private property will be fiercely protected. Through the decades and centuries under which this constitution has ruled the nation, judges have yearly been protecting people’s property rights. This Mars Jupiter conjunction rules the judiciary in America. And it rules the Fifth Amendment, which also protects private property.

This 3° Mars exactly trines Washington’s natal Sun. He quietly made sure that the Lockeian philosophy of private property would be deeply embedded in the Constitution.

 Scorpio  Sublime

Sun, Venus and Mercury are located in the 8th House in the sign Virgo. The heart of this document (the Sun) is involved in the practical application of a deep, political philosophy. There is no better sign than Virgo to do this. Virgo in its inmost meaning is making things work better; in this case its meaning is “to form a more perfect Union”.

Most September 17 charts have the placement of these bodies in the 8th House, the natural Scorpio House. The overall energy of this chart is Scorpio, called here sublime Scorpio. This is where people unify their energies to achieve high purpose, like creating a new nation. The Scorpio influence is shown by the Sun, Venus and Mercury located in the 8th House, also by the Pluto/Saturn synod in the first house, and by the sign Scorpio on the MC. The Pluto/Saturn conjunction synod demonstrates that the Scorpio energy of uniting is given form by the Saturn influence. When people work together, join minds on a deep emotional and spiritual level, they can create great things, including great wealth and great nations. For two-and-a-half centuries, America has been one of the greatest wealth creating nations on the planet. And it has been one of the freest nations.

As far as the separation of powers goes, Pluto (part ruler of the legislative function) is inconjunct the Venus/Mercury conjunction (part of the executive), and Saturn is inconjunct the Sun. These aspects of separation guarantee that the legislative will counter and fight the executive. Ambition confronts ambition. This separation of powers tends to limit the power of each. The judicial (Mars Jupiter conjunction) counters the executive (Sun) by an exact square of Jupiter to the Sun. For over two centuries, judges and high courts, like the Supreme Court, have countered the acts of presidents.  They caused one president to resign (Nixon) and another to be elected (Bush). No one agency or group or person has supreme power in America. Presidents have the power to appoint federal judges. This is another manifestation of the exact Sun square Jupiter.

Shay’s Rebellion occurred when Pluto and Saturn were exactly at 13° Aquarius (29 August 1786). This synod directly activated two parts of Washington’s grand trine. It was in a partile trine to his Neptune; it exactly trined the mid-point of his loose natal Jupiter/Pluto conjunction. His natal grand trine, all in air signs, including a Jupiter Mercury trine, demonstrates his profound mental gifts (there are thirty-nine volumes of his writings in the Library of Congress), his ability to manage large organizations like the Continental Army, and his gifts for strategy as a president. We must include here his ability to take ideas and philosophies of human freedom and republican government and fashion them into a practical structure of government.

Like many of the other Founders, Washington had, especially in his huge correspondence with Madison, Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton, etc., thought about, weighed, and considered the measures it would take to make a more perfect Union.

The Pluto/Saturn synod activated Shay’s Rebellion, and exactly inconjuncted the Declaration natal Sun; it also activated the process of creating a stronger government, one that would be more effective, and it would culminate in the Constitutional Convention nine months later.

By September 17, 1787, when the document was finished, that Saturn part of the synod, located at 23° Aquarius, would exactly square Washington’s natal Mars/Eris. This meant that Washington was a definite part of this process of building a new structure of government (Mars square Saturn in the Constitutional chart) into a viable working republic. He would exert his influence quietly, mostly behind the scenes (that Mars is in Scorpio). He sat in the president’s chair and remained silent. The delegates argued out their compromises. When the delegates met in the evenings in the bars and taverns around town, then Washington exerted his influence, and remember, he was the most influential man in America—often a word or a nod was enough to move things in an entirely new direction.

The thrust and drive of his political philosophy would form the heart of the Convention. That Eris was exactly conjoined his Mars in his natal chart means that what was created here was touched with immortality, that what was created here would be around for centuries, perhaps millennia.

Pluto/Saturn was still in his tenth House on September 17, 1787, when the document was signed. Pluto and Saturn are both karmic planets. When their energy is applied in their highest form, in governing, we find the application of judicious power (Pluto), united with the patient application (Saturn) of the rule of law.

He would be elected president some fifteen months later, when Saturn was conjunct his natal Sun, a typical aspect for an ascent-to-power. Around the same time, Pluto would trine his natal Pluto. For the next eight years, he would exert enormous powers that would change the history if the world.

This book is available for purchase at Amazon. For that go here.

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

American Revolution Astrology
https://www.historicalastrology.com/horoscope-of-george-washington/american-revolution-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/