Stepping Outside

THE BOX of my home to view the predawn sky, in search of calming of this fevered brain, spotting bright Jupiter — nearly overhead — was quick and easy. Dull-red and dimmer Mars — seventeen zodiacal degrees away, toward the east — took a bit more looking.

Awake for hours already, the little white coffea cruda pellet swallowed in the wee hours was too little to overcome the flitting thoughts. Stepping out in the back yard, going to the edge of the tall and narrow wilderness of the Jerusalem artichokes, this observer looked up again while offering the last pee of the night to the Earth, and picked out Jupiter again.

Yesterday, with a clearer sky, Jupiter and Mars and Orion somehow offered more solace and a path back to sleep.

This time, some significance came through a little clearer: oh right, Jupiter and Mars energies and options simultaneously compromised. Jupiter in exile, Mars in fall. Double trouble.

Before giving in and getting up, thoughts had turned to various recollections:

the total solar eclipse path that arced through this region this past April;

the legends surrounding another though summer eclipse centuries ago that perhaps coincided with the formation of the Iroquois Confederacy;

the lore asserting that a visit by the great scientist Benjamin Franklin to the Iroquois had resulted in Iroquois principles being incorporated into the nascent American democratic experiment;

the statements by a number of high-ranking American generals that they take very seriously their oaths to the Constitution and not to any President or would-be King, to the extent that they offer testimony to their advisory experiences and decline to endorse any candidate;

the memory of my dearly departed father, seldom inclined toward political commentary, asserting that Robert E. Lee — pre-eminent military leader of the Confederate States of America — was a traitor to his country;

the historical perspective that the War Between the States — marked astrologically by the country’s first Uranus return — served to resolve the plurality of the United States to a singularity;

the recollection that his grandfather (my great-grandfather) petitioned then-President Lincoln to allow him to complete his medical education before joining the Army to serve as a surgeon for the Union;

the fact that Arlington National Cemetery — the most hallowed ground of the nation’s war dead — occupies the confiscated acreage of Lee’s slave-worked plantation;

the fact that Lee’s onetime mansion overlooks the Potomac River and, beyond it, the great monuments, the immense dome of the Capitol, and the low-rise White House;

the reporting of the recent and now almost-eclipsed travesty of a Presidential campaign stunt forbidden by long-established rules and standards of behavior at the Cemetery;

the consideration that Ukraine’s long struggle for independent nationhood renders its people cousins to America’s population;

the personal memory of experiencing the earthquake in 2011 that cracked the Washington Monument, necessitating its closure to visitors for a three-year period of repair; said experience occurring while visiting / staying with said aged father, and witnessing his daily devotion to the Washington Post and his dozing off during his perusal;

and other scattered thoughts now lost in dawn’s early light.

[06:52 EDT — Luna exactly conjunct setting Saturn and opposite Mercury as Sol rises on this day destined to conclude with a partial lunar eclipse]

Perhaps this is an appropriate moment for a look at the chart for that earthquake moment, and a consideration of the events and developments of that time and the years intervening.

Take a look / take a thought or many regarding the numerous linkages: Saturn returned to the location of Saturn at the time of the Declaration of Independence; Mars in Cancer (ding-ding, ding-ding) and conjunct the Sun’s place in the Declaration chart (not shown here); Mars conjunct the place of the partial solar eclipse on 01 July 2011 (two months prior to the earthquake); Luna conjunct the south lunar node and conjunct Mars’ place in the Declaration chart; Pluto exactly opposite the place of Jupiter (exalted) in the Declaration chart; Mercury retrograde and conjunct (by two degrees) the place of Mercury’s direct station on 28 August 2024; Sun in first degree of Earth sign Virgo and conjunct Venus (in sign of fall); Neptune in last degree of Air sign Aquarius; the current stationary retrograde Uranus conjunct the Descendant of the earthquake chart; and more.

There is a lot to unpack here: left to you, dear reader. Perhaps it is well to start with a complex question: Where were you that day, even that moment; who else, if anyone, was present; and what were you doing?

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Copyright 2024 by Peter Doughty. All rights reserved.

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References and Rabbit Holes

The American Ephemeris for the 21st Century, Neil Michelsen &Rique Pottenger, 1997.

“Orion,” Stormwatch, Jethro Tull, 1979.

“2011 Earthquake,” National Park Service.

“Earthquake rocks Washington Monument,” Youtube.

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