Tran­script of Radio Show: The New Year – Nep­tune and US History

(If you wish to lis­ten to the show instead, here is the link on BlogTalk or Apple Pod­casts)

As we say good­bye to 2020 and look ahead to what may unfold in 2021, I thought I would con­tin­ue to exam­ine the impor­tance of Neptune’s influ­ence for the USA and look at how this might be under­stood with regards to our present con­di­tion and his­tor­i­cal antecedents.

Nep­tune
As I not­ed in my show on Decem­ber 6^th, (which you can read the tran­script for here), the impor­tance of Nep­tune gen­er­al­ly, and more espe­cial­ly in the USA chart is quite telling. Nep­tune, one of the three Avatars of the Divine Tri­ad of Spir­it, holds the truth of the Ener­gy-Form behind the whole of Cre­ation. That Ener­gy-Form is the Love of the One in every Mon­ad; it is the “One in one and all” and it is most pure­ly expe­ri­enced by us as Uncon­di­tion­al Love.

Of course, noth­ing can be or exist with­out inter­re­la­tion­ship, and for Nep­tune that means we can only under­stand its mean­ings for us by fram­ing our expe­ri­ence with Uranus and Plu­to as well. Look­ing at this Tri­ad we find that Plu­to as the Avatar of Divine Will cre­ates and forms the Space or Con­tain­er for any being; Nep­tune as the Avatar of Uncon­di­tion­al Love shapes the aware­ness of any being towards ever greater Com­mu­nal­i­ty; and Uranus as the Avatar of Freer Mind shapes the aware­ness of any being towards every greater Individuality.

Nep­tune as the Avatar of Uncon­di­tion­al Love holds for us our Intu­ition­al nature, our capac­i­ty to know and encom­pass anoth­er as our­self; it is the foun­tain-source for our empa­thy, com­pas­sion and sac­ri­fice for one anoth­er as all of these (and oth­er noble traits) are found­ed by our true nature (when awak­ened), which is quite sim­ply that we are made by and for one anoth­er in uncon­di­tion­al love.

Nep­tune and Astro­log­i­cal Chart of the USA
As I have not­ed before, the place­ment of Nep­tune in the chart of the USA is quite promi­nent. It is at the top of the chart (along with Sat­urn), locat­ed in the 9^th house of Under­stand­ing. Nep­tune holds the dream of a nation and part of the found­ing myth of the Unit­ed States is its sense of being excep­tion­al. We declare in our nation­al seal that we are a “New Order for the Ages”. We came to form a new human covenant, where we by hold­ing togeth­er dis­parate peo­ples from around the world, all of whom are seek­ing to live a freer life, we would be a shin­ing exam­ple of Free­dom, Tol­er­ance and Com­mu­ni­ty. The USA would be a new soci­ety, formed by a belief in one another’s self-ful­fill­ment as being made pos­si­ble through one anoth­er, and by our self-gov­ern­ment, where­in we would care for one anoth­er; we declared that “We Mutu­al­ly Pledge To Each Oth­er Our Lives, Our For­tunes, And Our Sacred Hon­or”, and so strive to cre­ate a space of free­dom and jus­tice for one and for all.

As I not­ed in my ear­li­er shows, Nep­tune, the hold­er of dreams and myths, of illu­mi­na­tions and delu­sions, has returned now to the posi­tion it held as the Unit­ed States faced its great­est exis­ten­tial and spir­i­tu­al cri­sis formed by the divi­sion into two visions or myths of Amer­i­ca, whether to be Slave or Free, in the Civ­il War. The ques­tion then and seem­ing­ly now is, “will the fun­da­men­tal spir­i­tu­al truth, that all humans are cre­at­ed equal, be made our real­i­ty or not”?

Demo­c­ra­t­ic and Repub­li­can Charts
It is quite inter­est­ing, and cer­tain­ly no acci­dent, that in the charts of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic and Repub­li­can par­ties Nep­tune is also fea­tured quite promi­nent­ly. It is also quite inter­est­ing, and again no acci­dent I would think, that these two charts are so inter­re­lat­ed with one another.

Though there was an ear­li­er ver­sion of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty, the gen­er­al­ly accept­ed date of the par­ty is Jan­u­ary 8, 1828 in Portsmouth, NH. That makes it a Capri­corn, and for our pur­pos­es today, it is note­wor­thy that it is born with a Sun/Neptune Con­junc­tion. The Repub­li­can Par­ty was found­ed on the wreck­age of the Whig Par­ty and its date of incor­po­ra­tion is July 6, 1854 in Jack­son, WI. That makes it a Can­cer, and it has its Nep­tune in Pisces which is Trin­ing the Sun in Cancer.

The two charts have their Sun in oppo­si­tion to one anoth­er, which makes per­fect sense giv­en the oppo­si­tion­al nature of the two party’s posi­tions through­out US his­to­ry. Spir­i­tu­al­ly, it is by oppo­si­tions or oppo­site qual­i­ties and natures that we tru­ly find our way. That Way or path is found by hold­ing each togeth­er as part of the answer, and by find­ing the third way, we fol­low the inte­gral path of Spirit.

Because of this oppo­si­tion , it is very instruc­tive to exam­ine the series of align­ments to their respec­tive Suns, by Sat­urn or Uranus, and by Nep­tune and Plu­to, as these have often indi­cat­ed the mean­ing behind as well as the tim­ing of shifts in those who held pow­er. With regards to the par­ty in con­trol of the Pres­i­den­cy, the Repub­li­can Par­ty from the Civ­il War to the Great Depres­sion held the White House, with only Grover Cleve­land and Woodrow Wil­son being the excep­tions. Then from FDR to LBJ the democ­rats held pow­er, except for the two terms of Dwight David Eisenhower.

Nep­tune and the Democratic/Republican Charts
For today, I want to focus upon the role of Nep­tune with regards to the two par­ties and their his­tor­i­cal shifts. Both par­ties are strong­ly influ­enced by the plan­et Nep­tune, which is the plan­et of dreams, myths, and ide­olo­gies. It is the prin­ci­pal shaper of the visions and dreams of a per­son, group, or nation. Real­ly, along with the plan­et Uranus, I see Nep­tune shap­ing the con­scious­ness of what­ev­er enti­ty one may be exam­in­ing. But just like an indi­vid­ual, or cul­tur­al group or par­ty or nation, those dreams and myths are pro­tean in nature, as they trans­form and blend, rise and fall, even­tu­al­ly becom­ing bro­ken, or reformed or reborn over time. Though in its high­est form Nep­tune, as the plan­et of Uncon­di­tion­al Love, will inspire empa­thy and inclu­sive­ness, wher­ev­er fear takes hold, it will then man­i­fest as the shad­ow side of Nep­tune, evi­denced by sep­a­ra­tions and exclu­sive divi­sions, becom­ing sub­ject to fan­tasies, delu­sions, and con­spir­a­to­r­i­al manias.

There are not a few his­to­ri­ans and oth­er social observers who have watch the arc of the Repub­li­can par­ty from its found­ing as the par­ty of Lin­coln and Eman­ci­pa­tion, seem­ing­ly devolve in the past 50 years or so into a par­ty whose self-inter­est seems to be depen­dent upon var­i­ous schemes to deny the right to vote to peo­ple of col­or. This process of exclu­sion instead of inclu­sion, (very much a reflec­tion of a neg­a­tive fear-based shift­ing of Nep­tun­ian dreams and myths), was not an acci­dent. It was a reac­tion or fear fed by the exten­sion of civ­il rights in 1964 and 1965. As a result of this attempt of greater inclu­sive­ness, the con­trol by the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty shift­ed to the Repub­li­can Par­ty in the for­mer states of the Con­fed­er­a­cy as well in some West­ern States and rur­al areas.

1960’s Shift
This redefin­ing of the myth of the Repub­li­can par­ty began in the late 1960’s and was accom­pa­nied Astro­log­i­cal­ly by the wan­ing Trine of Nep­tune to Nep­tune in its chart. It is inter­est­ing that we can note that the same aspect of the wan­ing Trine in the Demo­c­ra­t­ic chart hap­pened in the mid-1930’s when it shift­ed to a more activist form of gov­er­nance, in the attempt to deal with the calami­ty of the Great Depres­sion and the exis­ten­tial cri­sis of World War II. That redefin­ing of the par­ty and its elec­toral make­up, led to the Democ­rats hold­ing pow­er (except for the Eisen­how­er years), from 1932 to the late 1960’s.

It is quite inter­est­ing that for the Demo­c­ra­t­ic par­ty, the wan­ing of Nep­tune to Nep­tune in the response to the dev­as­ta­tion of the Great Depres­sion in the 1930’s, led to the expan­sion of gov­ern­ment and to the inclu­sion of more peo­ple in the body politic over time; where­as for the Repub­li­can par­ty in the late 1960’s the wan­ing trine led to con­sis­tent attempts to roll back the com­mu­nal space for the right to self-deter­mi­na­tion, in attempts to lim­it and ulti­mate­ly hob­ble Fed­er­al ser­vices, and by var­ied and numer­ous actions to nar­row the elec­torate and deny rights to legit­i­mate US citizens.

Nep­tune 2021
For our cur­rent peri­od, Nep­tune has returned to its natal posi­tion in the Repub­li­can party’s chart, the same place it was at the thresh­old of the Civ­il War. Like a “New Moon”, the return would imply a release of a new ener­gy-form that will slow­ly but sure­ly make itself evi­dent over the next many years. What this might mean after the last four years remains to be seen. But it is cer­tain­ly a fun­da­men­tal ques­tion among pun­dits and his­to­ri­ans right now: What is the dream and myth of the Repub­li­can par­ty now; what does it “stand for” after four years of Don­ald Trump?

The Nep­tune return in the Demo­c­ra­t­ic chart occurred in 1991, when after the 12 years of Repub­li­can rule under Rea­gan and George H. W. Bush, Democ­rats deter­mined that they should attempt to expand their elec­toral base by mov­ing towards a more con­ser­v­a­tive eco­nom­ic posi­tion dur­ing the Clin­ton pres­i­den­cy. Many have argued that this attempt to secure wider sup­port by mov­ing to “the cen­ter” only served to rein­force the eco­nom­i­cal­ly unsus­tain­able neo-lib­er­al poli­cies of the Rea­gan and Bush years, as it removed the last safe­guards and over­sight that had been insti­tut­ed after the Great Depres­sion. The lessons of the 1920’s and 1930’s had been for­got­ten by both par­ties, and this, along with oth­er devel­op­ments in the nature of the finan­cial mar­kets and broad­er econ­o­my, brought about the Sec­ond Great Depres­sion under George W. Bush.

That mort­gage cri­sis and finan­cial melt­down of 2007 and 2008, led to the Demo­c­ra­t­ic par­ty nom­i­nat­ing Barack Oba­ma, who would become the first black pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States. Sad­dled with the worse eco­nom­ic con­di­tions since the 1930’s, he attempt­ed to restore the eco­nom­ic order while also extend­ing one of the most basic pro­tec­tions of a civ­il (or bet­ter put, humane) soci­ety by address­ing the bro­ken health­care sys­tem of the US in the Afford­able Care Act.

Trump and Repub­li­can Party
The last four years have seen the Trump agen­da being for the most part an attempt to reverse all the gains in equi­ty and fair­ness dur­ing the Oba­ma years. The Repub­li­can par­ty, as embod­ied by its leader, appears to have no guid­ing belief or mean­ing, as it has devolved into a cult of per­son­al­i­ty for a self­ish and cru­el nar­cis­sist. There was no mean­ing or love guid­ing poli­cies and actions, no plans for the greater good, just fear-filled demands for atten­tion or revenge. It has led many now, to break their sacred oath for all who serve in gov­ern­ment, that they will “pro­tect and defend the Con­sti­tu­tion”. The repeat­ed attempts to bring charges of elec­toral fraud have failed in the courts because there is no cred­i­ble evi­dence of fraud, just spu­ri­ous alle­ga­tions meant to dis­en­fran­chise minor­i­ty districts.

What will the Repub­li­can par­ty become now? The par­ty found­ed on com­pas­sion for those suf­fer­ing under slav­ery has turned into a par­ty of griev­ance whose lamen­ta­tions and woe are root­ed in a Nep­tun­ian delu­sion of their inher­ent right to pow­er, and their claim that oth­ers are not enti­tled to vote. In all but one of their chal­lenges regard­ing the 2020 Pres­i­den­tial elec­tion brought before the courts, and three of those to the Supreme Court, all have been found to be with­out evi­dence and dis­missed. The very votes they seek to throw out were over­seen and cer­ti­fied by rep­re­sen­ta­tives from both par­ties, and in most of the states the offi­cers over­see­ing the elec­tions are from the Repub­li­can Party.

The plan­ets do not make what hap­pens down here; they pro­vide a con­text of mean­ing and the tim­ing for the events in our jour­ney of Spir­it. What hap­pens, what actions we take and what real­i­ty we make, that is on us; it is by this that we, the mak­ers of our real­i­ty, reveal our aware­ness or lack of under­stand­ing. It is upon each of us to act with integri­ty, hon­or, and love. If we lis­ten to the Winds of the Spir­it in our heart, we will be guid­ed and cen­tered in each and every moment by our ever­last­ing faith and love, and not by fear. The mes­sage of Spir­it now, held by Nep­tune, is that we must always turn away from fear and hate and remem­ber that we are here to love one another.

2021 – A Reckoning
2021 is a year of reck­on­ing. In the chart of the USA, Nep­tune is once again oppo­site to its natal or birth posi­tion. Just like in 1858, we are being asked to look at our­selves, and to look at one anoth­er, and see in one anoth­er our own true self. We formed a covenant, and in that sacred con­tract we pledged to cre­ate a space for self-ful­fill­ment that is found­ed upon and cir­cum­scribed by our Love for one anoth­er. That is why we must strive to cre­ate the freest con­di­tions pos­si­ble to real­ize each member’s poten­tial, while equal­ly sac­ri­fic­ing more self­ish inter­ests for the greater good of the com­mu­ni­ty. We must find the mid­dle way, the path of inte­gra­tion and love for one another.

It starts right here, as you lis­ten with your heart you must rea­son with your mind. As you hold togeth­er your feel­ings and thoughts through the bless­ings of your high­er, Intu­ition­al Self, it is then that you will be guid­ed to be ever kinder to your­self and to one anoth­er too.

The Law of Kar­ma is per­fect and Just; the Answer is always the same.

Love one anoth­er as you love are loved by your High­er Self.

This is the way of the Lone­ly Ones, the way of the Mas­ters of the Light.

Fol­low the path of gen­tle­ness, com­pas­sion, and sacrifice.

Fol­low the Way of Light and Truth and Love.