More Republican Mayhem

Peter emailed last week.  “What about the retrograde Venus in the Republican chart?”  I was gobsmacked.  I was thunderstruck. I was slammed to the floor.  I was blown to smithereens, and the smithereens blown to tiny bits and then stomped on.

I missed a retrograde Venus?  No fair blaming lousy Solar Fire printouts, there is no excuse for not checking the obvious.  A retrograde Venus changes the Republican chart in fundamental ways.  So let’s have another look at the Republicans, and the planets themselves:

First, what are the chances of a chart with both Mars and Venus retrograde?  I turned to Neil Michelsen’s Tables of Planetary Phenomena.  (I have books, I will use them.)  On pg. 108, I learn that Venus is retrograde 7.2% of the time, and that Mars is retrograde 9.5%.  Multiply those two and they are both retrograde .6850% of the time.  That’s 68 hundredths of one percent. In theory, that’s some 250 days per century.

Then I got out the ephemerides and counted.  As I don’t have a 19th century ephemeris, I checked 1900-2100, a total of 201 years.  Here is what I found.  Mars and Venus were both retrograde:
42 days in 1905
26 days in 1918
23 days in 1937
8 days in 1950
4 days in 1969
For an actual count of 103 days for the 20th century.  Barely more than one day a year.

For the 21st century, as follows:
10 days in 2037 – a 68 year gap
12 days in 2057
30 days in 2069
2 days in 2076
14 days in 2082
28 days in 2089
1 day in 2095
For a total of 83 days in the 21st century.  Less than one day a year.

So far as 1854 is concerned, Venus went retrograde on February 6th.  It went direct on March 21st, a total of 54 days.  Mars was retrograde the entire time.  For most of that period, the two planets were within a degree or two of exactly opposed.  None of the mutual retrogrades of the 20th & 21st century were that severe.  In all the other cases, the two planets’ retrogrades merely overlapped.  In 1854, the Martian retrograde ate the Venusian whole.

The normal delineation of Venus/Mars opposed says that if Venus is the stronger, then the native is hypersensitive and prone to abuse.  It is the female who cannot stand to be “hit on”, who is fearful of being stalked, who hides from the world.

When Mars is the stronger, we get the abusive male.  Super macho, women are his for the taking, their feelings, their beings, of no interest to him.  So long as he gets his way.

Critically in these traditional delineations, it is presumed that Mars is retrograde.  Except for lunar oppositions, virtually all oppositions have one retrograde planet.  It is as if there are two fighters in the ring.  One—the direct planet—comes out of his corner swinging.  The other—the retrograde one—emerges from the opposite corner, cowering.  Ma!  He’s picking on me!  Does victory then go to the direct planet?  No.  It’s not so simple.  When pushed the retrograde planet may well lash out:  The cornered animal.  I wish I could tell you there were simple mechanical rules for astrology, but there are not.  You must look at each individual case.

When both opposing planets are retrograde—which is rare—it is as if the fighters have torn up the rule book.  They are both in the ring, but they are there despite themselves.  When both cower, victory goes to the better placed, better aspected planet.  Since whatever planet that squares one, will square the other, and whatever planet that  trines one, will sextile the other, tightness of orb is critical.  As well as any planet that conjuncts one and opposes the other.

In the Republican chart, retrograde Venus, being well placed in Pisces, does not want icky Martian interference.  Only one degree separate from the Sun, she is still within its warm rays.  So far as retrograde Mars is concerned, he has his plans carefully laid.  He will do what he wants.  He is not responsible for Venus’ serfs or slaves or whatever she is calling them this week.  So far as he is concerned, the best defense is a good offense.

As I mentioned last week, the Virgo-Pisces opposition is the main source of power in the Republican chart, and it is a curious sort.  Venus has its ideals.  It is the chart ruler, it is backed up—quite powerfully—by the Sun.  Neptune and Mercury, both of questionable motives, are in Pisces and along for the ride, but that’s okay.  All four planets in idealistic Pisces, in the house of slaves, serfs, workers, doctors and even small animals, surely Team Venus can be trusted to take care of us!

But it is precisely because Venus is retrograde that the Republicans are, and have been, unable to deliver on their grand promises.

What, in fact, was the Republican plan to end slavery?  Answer:  There never was a realistic plan.  Not at all.

The most likely plan, simple-headed, muddled, highly dangerous, a plan that was endorsed by Abraham Lincoln himself, was to simply ship the slaves to some other country.  There to fend for themselves.  By 1860, slave repatriation had been on-going for some 40 years.  One result is known today as the nation of Liberia, which was formally founded in 1847.

Upon taking power, all the Republicans needed to do was send the army to the South to round up eager slaves.  Up to 1863, Lincoln’s actual plan (opposed by all freed slaves) was to strand them in Haiti or Central America.  A slam-dunk.  Nothing could be more simple.  Why do you suppose that immediately upon Lincoln’s election, the Confederate states seceded, even before he was sworn in?  Fearful the Yankee army would invade, fearful the slaves would rise up to greet them, why do you suppose the South attacked Fort Sumpter?  Southern backs were against the wall.  Throw the Yankees out, everything else was negotiable.
   
In this respect, the Republicans are paternalists gone sideways.  They come with impractical plans (retrograde Mars in Virgo) that cannot actually be put into action (opposition to the chart ruler, a retrograde Venus), but which can result in unintended consequences.  Such as being forced into a Civil War.

Or shutting down the government in 1994 to make some petty point.  Or stopping the Florida recount in 2000.  Or holding the nation hostage over a debt ceiling.

Such Republican plans “for the good of all” are imposed on the unwilling serfs/slaves/workers, to the profit of institutions (12th house: corporations are people, too) and their financial backers (Mars trine to Saturn in Taurus in the 8th).

Which Venus, in league with Saturn in Taurus, permits.  Elsewhere, Mercury, not very bright in Pisces, is smart enough to know it wants to be on the other side of the chart, in Virgo, with Mars.
   
Hardly anything in astrology is more rare than a political party with both Venus and Mars retrograde.  Surely this cannot be human!  At first I thought, the Republicans are really ALIENS FROM OUTER SPACE, sent to infest unsuspecting earth creatures!

But then I thought, God sent the Republicans to Smite America back into the stone age where it belonged.  The Avenging Angels of Amerika, one and all.  And, well, they’re just taking their time at it.  Nobody ever said that God was in a rush.  I can make out a case that he enjoys slow torture.

But, heck, well, no, that weren’t it, either.  Lookie here:  From a standing start, the Republicans were running the country seven years after they were founded, and went on running it, in a more or less unbroken streak, until the economic system as a whole collapsed in 1929.

Whereupon Franklin Roosevelt rescued us—and them—and after 40 years of licking their wounds, Ronald Reagan brought the Republicans back from the dead.  There is no difference between what the Republicans are now, and what they ever were.  The nice, kindly, sympathetic Republicans of the 50’s and 60’s, the Republicans I grew up with, were simply a party in disarray.

With this kind of success, we should be honest and admit the Republican Party to be the true face of America.  Maybe the shock of self-recognition will encourage us to do better.  Do  you see another  Franklin Roosevelt in sight?

In his email Peter also remarked that the purpose of the Republican Moon in Aries in the 6th, ruling the 10th of Cancer, was to use its public position (MC) to push workers (6th) around.  Which is another excellent observation.  Do the Republicans treat us any better than they treated the slaves?  Don’t just think of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, as that was the work of one man.  Think of the horror of Reconstruction and its aftermath.  Or the fate of Liberia.

Mark emailed to ask where I get the keywords that I use.  While there are two excellent sources for this sort of thing (J.Lee Lehman and Rex Bills), I never quite got on with either one.  In part I am guided by 25 years of study, but when I’m stumped, or unsure or just want a second opinion, I turn to Sakoian and Acker, Alan Oken, Charles Carter and Vivian Robson.  All of which are basic introductions-to-astrology books.  There are many others.  You should have three, if not four, such books in your library, each carefully chosen.

The technique I use can be found in Morin’s Book 21, or in Patti Tobin Brittian’s Planetary Powers.  It was best expressed by Vivian Robson, in A Beginner’s Guide to Practical Astrology:

    Having found the significator of the matter concerned interpret all aspects to it as things and people affecting it.  Suppose Jupiter were chief significator of money and afflicted by Saturn.  We should judge that money matters would be hampered by poor conditions, depressing surroundings, ill-health, or whatever Saturn signified in that horoscope.  In other words, we should give Jupiter the chief consideration as significator of the matter enquired into, and interpret the action of Saturn in its relation to Jupiter, and not vice-versa.  On the other hand if Saturn were the significator we should judge that fits of generosity or extravagance would affect the finances, because Jupiter is expansive in its action, and its afflicting aspect would cause trouble and loss.  This general judgment is then refined by taking into account the sign and house occupied by the aspecting planet, and the houses it rules.  Thus, suppose with Saturn as significator that Jupiter threw an adverse aspect from the 5th house. Then we should judge that the extravagance would arise from too much indulgence in pleasure, or from gambling, or other matters ruled by the 5th house.  This would be modified by the sign containing Jupiter.  A water sign would incline more to self-indulgence, a fiery one to gambling, a sign ruled by Venus to expenditure on women, and so on, thus enabling us to enlarge on the judgement obtained from the house position alone.  We should next look to see what houses Jupiter ruled.  If it ruled the 3rd we should judge expense and extravagance over journeys, relatives and other third house matters, and by blending the influences, that gambling losses (5th) would come through the advice of relatives (3rd) or some other appropriate blending. . . .

This, however, is not the only way the influences would work. . . .  

       There is method to be used, and it is one which needs considerable practice, but it is well-worth the trouble involved, and the student will himself be amazed to find how accurately the most trifling details may be predicted.

As a word of advice to the beginner I would say — Do not be afraid to let yourself go in this way. You will make many mistakes to start with, but it is the only way to make your Astrology of practical use. There is too great a tendency nowadays to float about in a comfortable haze of so-called esotericism. The first need of Astrology is accuracy and definition, not pseudo-religious speculation, and it is only by concentrating on the practical and scientific side that we can really make Astrology of service, and obtain for it the recognition it deserves.  (Dave’s emphasis)

I wrote a great deal more this week, chiefly on how slavery really worked, but it was too much of a rant.  (You want the real story of slavery?  Female slaves were forcibly bred/mass raped on an annual basis, the majority of male slaves castrated at birth.  The slave-owner himself did the siring/stud work/raping (pick your term).  Such is how field slaves came to be.  Because, as is well-known, slaves will not breed.  “Let slavery end with me” is their bedrock belief.  What do you think of Jefferson, now?  House slaves were the product of the owner’s slovenly daughter and an unexpectedly fertile black male.  Presumably for every house slave, there was one dead black male.  The real story of slavery is still well-hidden.)

Consider also Rosemary’s Baby, which, metaphorically speaking, is what can come about when both Venus and Mars are retrograde.  Just plain creepy.

America is, in sum, an extraordinary country.  It has an extraordinary chart, the chart of the founding of the Republican Party.  Next year I expect it to sweep the elections and by its misrule further advance its mission of self-destruction through greed.  The rest of the world is trying to distance itself from us, by whatever means as come to hand.  It is just that bleak.