Independence Day Astrology

Herein I comment on the previous post by Ray (posted with his permission).

Ray points out a few major aspects for the natal chart for July 4, 1776: Sun (13.19 in Cancer) square Saturn (14.49 in Libra) and Mercury (24.12R in Cancer) opposite Pluto (28.29 in Capricorn).

Pluto opposite Mercury

First of all, I have noticed that just because planets might not have been discovered at a the time the person was living, they still affect birth charts (and life courses). So the fact that Pluto (or Neptune or Uranus) were not discovered doesn't matter in interpreting the chart.

A Pluto/Mercury opposition causes tremendous pressure on communication. There can be two possible results, either with an either/or choice, or with an oscillation between the two, or with the two in sequence. The first possible result is complete suppression of communication. Absolute secrecy and silence. The stopper is put on the bottle and the bottle is put in a hole dug in the ground far away from the beaten path where it will never be found.

The second possible result is explosive communication, intense discourse going very deep into whatever the subject is (often dictated by the signs the planets are in).

Cancer is about protecting the home (the homeland) and one's loved ones. Capricorn is about work and achievement.

Oppositions are often push/pull things. Here the Pluto/Mercury opposition could mean a going back and forth on the issues -- first swinging to one side, then to the other.

Mercury in Cancer may cause thinking about how best to protect one's "home." Pluto in Capricorn -- well, Pluto is often about abuse of the subjects related to the sign it's in. The reason for this is not that Pluto is "bad," but that few can figure out how to use it because it requires one to go through hell and fire before arriving at any conclusion. I think of Pluto as like a Black Hole. It sucks everything into it, willy nilly.

More important than the fact that Mercury was retrograde (which I think is way overrated) is that Mercury and Pluto were BOTH retrograde, but since Mercury is faster, Mercury was actually backing away from the opposition (with Pluto chasing after it).

It would be interesting to see which went direct and how long they were mutually chasing after or running away from each other.

The Mystic Rectangle

And another thing about the Mercury/Pluto opposition is that it is part of a Mystic Rectangle aspect that involves Mercury, Neptune, Pluto, and Chiron. This means that Mercury is not only opposite Pluto but sextile Neptune, which is then opposite Chiron, which is sextile Pluto, forming a big rectangle that dominates the entire chart.

This also means that Pluto and Neptune are in trine and Chiron/Mercury are in trine. Neptune is 22.25 in Scorpio and Chiron is 00.00 in Aries. (In other words, there's a trine between Cancer and Aries, which is sort of unusual. Usually trines are between signs of like elements -- so normally, it would be Aries and Leo, or Cancer and Pisces. But because Chiron is right on the cusp, the trine crosses elements.)

And strangely, the same thing is true of the Neptune/Pluto trine: it's between Scorpio and Capricorn - crossing elements -- not sharing them.

What does this all mean? I could spend days analyzing it (and probably will). It certainly is a huge mix of things. I'll leave it unanswered for now, for future discussion. (Comments, of course, welcome.)

Saturn/Sun Square

The Sun/Saturn square is also, I agree, very important. Because Mystic Rectangles tend to dominate charts, and the Sun/Saturn square is not touched by it, the square may be less important. (And there are other important aspects in the chart, too -- a few other squares and trines, but we wont' go into them yet.)

Saturn tends to harshly restrict or put pressure on what it squares. Coming out of Aquarius, of which it is sub-ruler, it might have had the effect of shattering the Sun's sense of home. Mars and Uranus trining Saturn out of Gemini may have had the effect of increasing Saturn's shattering effect. Uranus buddying up with Saturn is pretty powerful and rambunctious. Mars trine, too, adds energy and drive to it.

About Pluto and Saturn Effects

I'm highly suspicious of any hard Pluto or Saturn effects in a chart. I have found them in the charts of the early prime players in the Bush Administration and found them to represent criminal doings, indeed even a criminal enterprise. When Saturn and Pluto are in hard aspect to each other, they are the stuff of Mafia.

Here, in our country's birthchart, Saturn and Pluto are NOT in hard aspect to each other, but they are in hard aspect to two personal planets (Mercury and, more importantly, the Sun).

With such combinations, I often find abuse of power and cruelty.