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AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM IN TODAY’S WORLD
USA Sibly Chart – July 4, 1776, 5:10 PM LMT, Philadelphia, PA
Each country, just as each individual, was born at a certain place and time and therefore has a chart and a personality in its own right. The passage of time and the cycles of transits reflect the growth, change, and transformation in the lives of individuals and of countries.
The Chart of the USA
Each country, just as each individual, was born at a certain place and time and therefore has a chart and a personality in its own right.
The astrological chart of the USA is a study in idealism. We can expect idealism when we see the Sun, Mercury, and Venus gathered together. The expectation increases with Jupiter in the mix.
These four planets in Cancer may be considered a stellium as well. When encountering a stellium always ask yourself about the mission that is suggested by the sign and house of the stellium.
The 8th house represents our ability to navigate the beliefs and values of others unlike our own. Because this is the chart of a country rather than a person, the navigation involves countries with different values and beliefs. The mission and idealism of the USA are wrapped up in its attempts to nurture, protect and control other entities with differing beliefs.
Those who grew up in white America were taught to believe in American exceptionalism. American exceptionalism is the belief that the United States is different, unique, and entitled.
This is idealism. Idealism requires ignoring or minimizing weaknesses, failings, and flaws while maximizing virtues, merits, and values.
Historically, the USA was portrayed and perceived as superior to other countries. It believed itself to be worthy of emulation and tasked with transforming the rest of the world in its image.
Perhaps most individuals in the US believe that idealism itself is a worthy ideal. It fits with the strangely popular belief that we create our own reality. ‘If we cast out negative thinking and allow only good thoughts, only good will come to us’, ’Look on the bright side of life’ are common refrains. After all, no one wants to be a Debbie Downer.
The Current Pluto Transit
The passage of time and the cycles of transiting planets reflect the growth and change in the lives of individuals and countries. The USA is a very young country, no more than a teenager. It has yet to learn the profound and important lessons of humility.
As I write this the USA’s natal chart is encountering its first Pluto return. The return of a planet occurs when that planet has made a complete circuit around the zodiac and returned to its natal position. Pluto takes approximately 248 years to cover this distance. Because Pluto moves so slowly you and I will never live to see a Pluto Return to our natal chart. Countries and other entities that live longer than 248 years will.
As any planet enters the sign of its original placement we get the first glimmer of the issue or the task that is required during the return itself. From the time it enters the sign until it reaches the exact degree of the natal planet, the issues build. The full story of the return comes to a crescendo as it makes direct contact with its natal position. Because our perspective on Earth includes retrograde periods, direct contact occurs between 3 and 5 times over the course of a year or more. The full story will play out over that time and will be understood and assimilated in the years following the return.
At the birth of the USA, Pluto was retrograde at 27 degrees 33 minutes of Capricorn. As I write this Pluto is moving forward at 27 degrees 20 minutes of Capricorn. It will make exact contact on February 22, 2022, July 11, 2022, and December 28, 2022.
The return officially began, giving us a glimpse of what was to come, when Pluto entered Capricorn in November 2008. Barack Obama was elected to the highest office of President of the United States in November 2008. He ran on the slogan “Change we can believe in”. The chant of his supporters was “Yes We Can”.
Pluto is the planet of change, not the change of ease and flow but profound transformational change. Pluto demands change and will destroy whatever is in the path of necessary transformation. Less than 14 years (half of a Saturn cycle) later we are watching the profound direction of change that began at that time. The perception of American exceptionalism has shifted dramatically.
For a country built on black slave labor, it is fitting that the deepest transformation begins as the first person of color ascends to the presidency. Since 2008 we have witnessed the USA traverse a dangerous path of destruction and a potentially hopeful transformation. Obama’s election stirred white supremacy and brought us to the dangerous flashpoint we find ourselves currently embroiled in.
As a transiting planet, Pluto’s job is to destroy whatever is in the way of necessary transformation. In order for anything to be truly transformed the original state must be destroyed. Pluto is the destroyer and the transformer. Something must be destroyed in order for the work of transformation to take place.
We are currently watching the destruction or transformation of American democracy itself. We continue to hope that true and honorable exceptionalism can rise to power on the other side. make no mistake that hope itself is not enough. Over the coming years, as we watch further destruction we each have the opportunity to participate in what grows in the compost on the other side.
The Pluto Cycle – The Cycle of Power
The Pluto Return is the completion of a cycle of building power that began when those white men in their white wigs signed this country into being. Just like a planet returning to its natal position in an individual’s chart it will help to understand the entire cycle.
Pluto was at its natal position from February 1776 to January 1777. Pluto formed its first quarter square to Pluto between June 1848 to March 1850 and formed its opposition to Pluto between August 1936 and June 1937. It formed its Last Quarter Square between November 1982 and August 1983.
Considering the power dynamics during these times may help us understand where we find ourselves now. At this first Pluto return, understand that what began at the start now comes to its conclusion. The cycle of Pluto, the cycle of power that began in 1776 is done. We begin a new cycle now.
The birth of the USA in 1776 found Pluto at 27degrees of Capricorn. The Declaration of Independence, a document to empower the birth of a country was signed at this time. The signing of that document did not occur in a vacuum. This was the American Revolutionary War, a bloody war fought to secure independence from Great Britain.
We are now living in a time that ends that cycle to begin a new cycle of empowerment. It is time to plant a seed for a new kind of empowerment and independence. Thinking about this is not easy and we are not in easy times.
Within Pluto’s cycle, the First Quarter Square occurred between 1848 and 1850. In all cycles, the First Quarter Square is the time that something must develop to propel the cycle forward. These are times of building power. In 1848/1850 the US was embroiled in the Mexican-American War which resulted in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. That treaty established the US – Mexican border and ceded to the United States the area of California, Nevada, Utah, most of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, large parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming. The area amounted to a whopping 338,680,960 acres. Talk about the growth of power! Interestingly this was also the time of the great California Gold Rush. An estimated 300,000 people came to the territory during this time looking for the growth of their individual power.
The Opposition of any cycle reflects the full growth and illumination of the cycle for better or worse. For the USA’s Pluto cycle this came between 1936 and 1937. This was a difficult time for the US. During this time the US was embroiled in the Great Depression and struggling to manage the Dust Bowl. President Franklin D. Roosevelt enacted The New Deal during this time.
The Last Quarter Square of any cycle reflects the beginning of the release of the cycle. Things that have been built begin the process of being released or broken down. This occurred between 1982 and 1983. This was the height of the Cold War with immense hostility between the Soviet Union and the US. The threat of nuclear war was at a high level resulting in great anxiety. This period of time also brought us to the beginning of the Drug Wars and the rapid increase of US incarceration rates.
The Full Cycle of Pluto is now at an end. Look at where we are. The choices that are made and the direction we turn at this time have profound impacts on the future. Living in this time, we understand the significance and can clearly feel Pluto in the very air we breathe.
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