Constitution Blues

MUCH BANDIED about of late — unsurprisingly so for anyone reasonably versed in the language of solar, lunar and planetary cycles — has been the fate of the late great (somewhat) constitutional republic known as the United States of America. Quite a run it was, instigated by a home-rule rabble maneuvered by a collection of aristocrats and intellectuals. From one declared 1776 moment when Pluto was quite invisibly retrograde at twenty-eight degrees Capricorn to the next such moment: February 2022.

The very month when Ruzzia launched full-scale war, culminating at least a decade of escalation against chronic irritant Ukraine.

Anybody remember Thomas Paine? Quite a pain in almost everyone’s arse back in the latter decades of the 18th century, bouncing back and forth between the western shores of Europe and the eastern shores of North America, a gadfly all around. He was a key figure — with his “Common Sense” pamphlets advocating independence from his homeland. Don’t that just sound all Aquarian? (“I know . . . better.)

His story got stuck in this observer’s head for a while, long ago. In fact, a printout of an un-timed (thus calculated for local noon) chart of his natal date was the first to come in by post. This was back in what almost seems like Pony Express era: when only a few solo people (not counting government and big industry) had their hands on computers that could do much.

There were these things called magazines, printed things that came in the mail (i.e., “snail” mail), and they had ads for various related services, and there were a few magazines dedicated to the small cadre of furtive searchers after arcane knowledge.

So for some reason I was poking around the history of the formation of said Republic, part of it being a native of one of the hotbeds of War of Independence fervor and notable events.

So this artifact came into my orbit, and I may still have it — probably do. A printout on rather crude typewriter paper, not of the consistency to last long in an archival sense: the conversion of computer-generated values for Sol, Luna and planets in configuration. A few generations of electronic evolution later, this is how it looks:

(Inner ring: natal sunrise chart; outer ring: publication Common Sense sunrise chart.)

Paine has a claim to the title The Father of the American Revolution, which rests on his pamphlets, especially Common Sense, which crystallized sentiment for independence in 1776. It was published in Philadelphia on January 10, 1776, and signed anonymously "by an Englishman". It was an immediate success, with Paine estimating it sold 100,000 copies in three months to the two million residents of the 13 colonies. During the course of the American Revolution, one biographer estimated a total of about 500,000 copies were sold, including unauthorized editions. — Wikipedia

Here’s this guy born with Sol approaching Jupiter (i.e., almost-Sol), approaching annual conjunction, this time in 1737 in the sign of Aquarius. That’s a sure sign of someone inclined toward something big, who’s going to have a LOT of contrary notions, someone chronically ill-fitting with the surrounding society. Sol is astrologically most hampered when in Aquarius: opposite domicile in Leo. It’s the ding-dang dead of winter in the Northern Hemisphere.

A few other features pop out: the three planets in first-degree, suggesting a super-charged path. One might suspect the role of rough-and-tumble amorous adventures in nurturing the personal circumstances of disruptive activity: Uranus in business / government Capricorn, Pluto in breakdown / regenerate Scorpio, Venus in initiator / warrior / defender Aries.

Sol is waning-square mode (connoting releasing / promulgation) with Mars: mark of a combative personality. Add the factor of Mars in exile in Taurus: well, he did experience both ends of the exile realm.

There is no missing the cluster Luna with Saturn in early Gemini, Neptune in late Gemini. Similar phase to 2024-25, but back then emphasizing ideas, communication, reporting, influencing.

There is revelatory force in the exact opposition between Venus and Uranus in the “Common Sense” moment six months before the Declaration moment. The externalization of much of Paine’s internal complexities with the life of eros, of the role of authority: Venus - Uranus aligning with natal Saturn and, to some degree, Luna. Hard times communicating with mom / mother country.

Note, lastly, Uranus in Paine’s natal figure: just past opposition to Neptune: the peak or dissemination phase in the extended cycle that refers particularly to ideological development and recurrence. The ol’ not-repeating-but-rhyming.

Looking a bit more at the “Common Sense” moment, there’s Luna with Neptune in Virgo, apropos of a detailed accounting of grievances and infractions. There’s also the close Solar square with Saturn, in the opening-outward phase with Saturn exalted: more challenge to authority: a more accommodating Saturn, a rather different arrangement of energies and mythos from the reverse, where Saturn would be domicile and Sol fallen. That would fit with circumstances where a writer might have to capitulate by writing a my-fault message. Not the case here, though.

Forward to an outcome, a key Constitutional Moment, one featured in the Book of World Horoscopes. It’s for the signing of the Constitution in Philadelphia eleven-and-a-half years later. Thus, almost a Jupiter cycle.

Sol is conjunct the place of Invisible Neptune in Virgo in the Declaration chart (not shown), reflecting the notion of the Servant Leader, not an autocrat. Mercury in all his guises, along with compromised Venus, accompany him, at least in intent. Sol - Mercury - Venus in the eighth place: not recommended from an electional astrology viewpoint: breadth and freedom of activity constrained by economic and power complications. Call them uneven playing fields, if you like: built-in.

Uranus was teetering on the edge between domestic-oriented Cancer and regal Leo. Bear in mind that Uranus in Leo was present for the inauguration of President-by-acclamation George Washington: the mythic one-who-could-have-been-king-but-declined figure.

Mars was in four degrees Cancer — a bit of a parallel with winter 2025, featuring Mars in Cancer (retrograde, then retracing the second half of the sign) — with the south lunar node: reflecting military and economic attachments with the old order affecting the constitutional process.

Thus, the volatile Mars - Uranus combination present at the Declaration was recurring, the focus and significance shifting from mercurial Gemini to lunar Cancer.

Jupiter, then and now, moves in Gemini: reflecting the very considerable process of accommodating disparate cultural and political differences across fifteen degrees of latitude, from Georgia to Massachusetts - Maine. Scattered points of settlement: The strain of the limit of scatteredness is represented in Sol’s one-degree-from-exact square to Jupiter. Mis-understandings aplenty ensue, facts out of all perspective.

Finally, the not-so-small factor of Saturn and Pluto co-habiting Aquarius, a year after their three-peat conjunction — that was the primary economic / political restructuring moment of the era of revolutions in America and France, prominently. The founding principles included notions about individual liberties, though there was less articulated about responsibilities. Utopian communities and wandering gaggles of zealous followers proliferated. The era was one marked by great social upheavals and attempts to reconstruct functional systems regulating the participation of various groups.

That sounds more than a bit like now, adjusting for vast differences in scale, human numbers and degree of industrialization.

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Copyright 2025 by Peter Doughty. All rights reserved.

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References and Rabbit Holes

Book of World Horoscopes, Nicholas Campion, 1996.

*** Author is available for personal consultations. ***