US birth chart was determined
by Thomas Jefferson
Not the Continental Congress!
US birth chart is universally recognized by all astrologers to be based upon the time that the Declaration of Independence was officially enacted. The acrimonious debate begins when the question is debated when that happened. Many American astrologers feel it is their special prerogative to declare their own personal birth time for their nation through their version of the timing of the formative detail of the Declaration of Independence.
The US birth chart is also universally accepted to have occurred some time during July 4th 1776. Constitutional scholars, starting with John Adams believe that the official act of the Continental Congress making the 13 colonies the United States occurred upon the 2nd of July, but no one actually accepts that in practice.
All official documents of the U.S. government bear the calendar date and a date in terms of the Independence of the United States from July 4, 1776. The official copy of the Declaration in the Archives bears the very clear headline—In Congress July 4th, 1776. There is no clear historical record of when the discussion and debate by the Continental Congress finally ended in the draft now in the National Archive. Thomas Jefferson wrote it was late in the evening.
One biography of John Hancock says it happened all of a sudden at exactly 2 pm and then Hancock alone signed for the nation at that time. Thus a claim the US birth chart for that special time. However, no evidence except this strange tale promoting Hancock exists. Most important, the US birth chart must somehow account for the unique features of this experiment in democracy, especially the total power of public opinion to rule.
There is no record of anyone actually signing the Declaration until at least August 22nd. The printed version of Jefferson’s final draft has in print the final words; signed by John Hancock, Pres. This printed version is all that exists to explain the activities of the Fourth of July, 1776 in the official journal of the Congress that day. No time or discussion or activities have been documented at all.
There are several major contenders for the US birth chart along with the unlimited number of personal favorites among astrologers. The Gemini rising US birth chart by Marc Edmond Jones, the Dean of American astrologers has many insightful details, starting with the planet Uranus, about to be discovered by Herschel, just below the Ascendant prominently in the first house. For all its overall and detailed strong points, this US birth chart has a birth time for the founding of the United States just before 2 am, a number of hours before the Continental Congress met to debate and edit the official text of the Declaration of Independence. This means the official text in the archive was the first act of the new nation, the United States of America which had been founded privately in the wee hours of the morning before the Congress convened, although it would be long after the vote of the Congress on July 2nd.
What could have happened in the dead of night to found the United States and establish this new experiment in “democracy” unknown in 1776 except for the comments in Aristotle’s Politics upon the government of Athens in his day? Thomas Jefferson wrote a final draft of the Declaration in his words which was the starting point for the discussion and debate by the Congress on July 4th. In order that each member of Congress might have their own copy of this committee draft, Thomas Jefferson worked with the printer Dunlap to have copies made during the night of July 3rd-4th. The final text was also printed up by this same printer, called the Dunlap Broadside, the next night and distributed throughout the colonies, now the new nation, the United States of America.
The Gemini rising US birth chart is based upon Thomas Jefferson’s final draft as the true founding document for the birth of our nation. The concrete act of printing copies of that draft became the founding declaration of the new nation through the simple power of the printing press as the high tech vehicle of publication at that time. Neither the legal process of the official vote before nor the formal editing of the text later that day were the decisive determinant of the US birth chart.
Instead, it was Jefferson’s personal draft in his own wording and organization that invented American Democracy and launched this new experiment in popular sovereignty with the Gemini Rising horoscope with Uranus (still unknown officially) in the first house and the Moon (representing public opinion and the general public) at the Zenith indicating the new nation would be ruled by the people with the Sun (representing the King or Chief executive) in the third house as an executive official, further limited by being squared by Saturn to impose discipline and difficulty upon the ruler’s actions.
It is only with the election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States that it has become possible to decide the question of the US birth chart official birth time. Barack Obama was born in Hawaii at an exact time (from his official birth certificate) that puts the US birth chart Moon position exactly upon Obama’s Ascendant and the US birth chart exact ascendant as the precise degree of his Moon position. The meteoric rise and success of Barack Obama as a candidate thus is explained by his being the Gemini Rising US birth chart incarnate.
The difference in text between Jefferson’s final draft and the edited official text is mostly concentrated in the final accusation made against King George III for imposing the slave trade in the colonies (to reduce the cash price of Virginia tobacco, originally) and then offering slaves their freedom if they took up arms against their masters once the likes of Jefferson started their insurrection against colonial British rule:
He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it’s most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian king of Great Britain determined to keep open a market where men should be bought & sold. He has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or restrict this execrable commerce and that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people upon whom he has also obtruded them; thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes he urges them to commit against the lives of another.
British slave trade came to Virginia as a major economic factor in the late 17th century when a drop in the price of sugar in London resulted in the Caribbean plantations having a surplus of slaves they needed to sell; and they marketed those slaves to the newly developing tobacco plantations of Virginia. Once established, the slave trade was promoted to the colonies as a profit advantage since slaves were labor that did not get paid cash wages. It was also cost reducing advantage to the shipping trade, exchaning tobacco for slaves, reducing the cash outlay and thus promote the cash profit of the overall trade to the London merchants bankrolling it.
The free market is only a part of the overall system controlling the supply of goods for sale and the credit required for effective demand. The result was that as the tobacco exports expanded in the colonies, the importation of slaves was promoted by trading forces seeking their maximum profit by reducing what they had to pay in cash for that tobacco bound to London markets. The free market can only reflect the marketing and supply considerations available to support and supply that market.
Slavery took root in the Southern colonies by the actions of the merchant trade for tobacco from there, and the Northern colonies without tobacco exports were thus free to develop their own crops, their own ship building and their own textile industries. The collateral damage of this shippers’ accounting trick, promoting slaves for tobacco plantations, became the loss of understanding of productivity or the benefits of labor. Labor became just the servile detail of doing what the boss demanded. Thus the current Conservative hatred of unions that seek to improve worker bargaining position. It is also why a brilliant fellow like Jefferson could never figure out how to actually turn a profit on his land and his slaves.
The official text of the Declaration of Independence removed these remarks by Jefferson, not wanting to mention slavery at all. Thus they sank into the historical background, unknown to Justice Taney in the Dread Scott decision and generally forgotten. The special status of the ethnic group kidnapped from Africa was built into Jefferson’s draft, as well as the special tensions of slaves being introduced for the profit of others in global trade and their attempt to attain their freedom encouraged to be violent and destructive of the majority white population by the political machinations of British colonial rule.
Barack Obama embodies in himself the true founding document of the American Democracy. His presidency will be the crucial time not only for finally resolving the issues of race in America; but also the questions of economic equity in global trade. The entire political and economic systems of the United States and of global credit accounting are the special focus of our 44th president.
Those who hope that the financial meltdown of 2008 can be corrected simply and return to the same market system as flourished for the last 5 or ten centuries will have to deal with their hopes dissolving with their expected Terra Firma of traditional assumptions. It is no longer possible to seek isolated profits by whatever means available at any spot on the globe and disappear back to the major market headquarters without concern for what that effort has destroyed our unraveled in some distant backwater of no importance generally.
The story of the Somali pirates proves that point. International factory fishing fleets raided the fish stock of the Somali coast with impunity. The displaced small fishermen had no income from their fishing any more. They had no government to protect them or offer them any alternatives. All they had were the weapons sold to Somalia in vast quantities from their civil war and their skills with their boats. Now the Somali pirates threaten all shipping through the Suez Canal, taking tankers and freighters and threatening cruise ships through much of the Eastern coast of Africa.
Jefferson sent the newly established Marine Corps to fight Muslim pirates threatening American shipping in his day. Today drugs, weapons, and explosives are the highest profit margin goods in global trade. Anywhere in the world that the civil society fails to maintain the local economy finds merchant shippers as eager to involve that population to buy the high profit products available. As the power of explosives and weapons available for sale from global military suppliers increase, the collateral damage of this evolution of the tobacco-slave shipping system expands without limit. Combined with the environmental damage of vast smoky fires from traditional agriculture and global deforestation this whole system decried by Jefferson in his founding document of the new Experiment in democracy is coming to crisis under Barack Obama, the Gemini Rising U.S. birth chart incarnate.
Explanation of Marc E. Jones US birth chart
with the birth time about 2 am
Marc E. Jones determined by rectification of the US birth chart in light of historical events that the appropriate birth time for the U.S. was 1:51 AM July 4th 1776. This is in the middle of the night before the famous discussion and debate by the Continental Congress. I have never heard any comment by Marc or anyone else before me of what was going on to produce this U.S. birth chart
I was once told that Thomas Jefferson, an almanac maker familiar with the beliefs of how the US birth chart would determine the character and destiny of the new nation, held up the discussion waiting for the moon to approach the zenith and thus make the common people supreme in the new nation. A great notion, though that would make the US birth chart refer to the 5th of July, 1776.
Rudhyar has a US birth chart with a 5: pm birth time as if the discussion and debate was concluded in time for happy hour. I have been involved in online discussion where a woman astrologer insisted it took until that time to get the men to return from their drinking and whoring in the local taverns to sign the document.
The famous 18th century English astrologer Dr. Sibley used a US birth chart with a 10:10 pm time and thus a local ascendant in the 14th degree of Sagittarius. A wonderful drawing exists of an angel handing George Washington the divinely inspired horoscope for the Declaration of Independence. Rudhyar settles upon a US birth chart with the time of 5:13’55”pm and an ascendant thus 14 Sagittarius. Not clear what happened at such a precise time to express the birth of the new nation, but it is always nice to have an exact chart.
How could anyone judge which time is correct and what therefore is the perfect US birth chart? Using the Sabian Symbols for the degrees of the Sun, Moon, Ascendant of any chart taken together should form a coherent image. This can be a most useful technique to rectify or correct a natal birth time.
Marc E. Jones mentioned in a workshop that when he used this technique with his own clients, he would start reading the Sabian Symbols of the possible degrees for rising sign out loud. Generally the client would listen intently, and when Marc read out the degree most appropriate, the client would suddenly call out---“Not that one, that can’t be me!”
The Sabian Symbol for 14 Cancer is: “A very old man, whose feebleness adds strangely to his dignity, stands alone, facing the darkness in the northeast.” This is the degree of George W. Bush43’s sun. The Sabian Symbol for 28 Aquarius is “The pioneer cottage is prepared for winter's rigors with a tree felled and sawed for fuel and all else in order.” And the all important Rising Sign Sabian Symbol is “A vast panorama of sand and time is unfolding; the pyramids and sphinx in their glory rise before the eye.”
The old man, the log cabin, and the Sphinx don’t fall together for me, but there is a pyramid with an eye in it on the back of the one dollar bill. This would make Bush43 truly the Yankee Doodle Dandy with his sun in the same degree as the sun (traditionally the significator of the chief executive) of the US birth chart. The people and public opinion is traditionally the moon, so they would be the well-prepared log cabin. The nation would be seen by world opinion as the wonders of the ancient world still standing, the pyramids and sphinx.
Marc E. Jones uses the birth time in the middle of the night before, about 2 hours after midnight. This puts the Sun in the 13th degree of Cancer:” A hand, which is held out receptively, is remarkable for the suggestion of character in its prominent thumb.” This makes the President the hitchhiker in chief giving the thumbs up and generally showing an open and powerful hand to the world.
The Moon is in last minutes of the 18th degree of Aquarius in the 10th house near the zenith. This would make the general public and public opinion supreme in the new nation. The Sabian Symbol for this degree is “The masquerade has long been in progress, and laughing young ladies at last have forced the final male to unmask.” This further indicates the power of the feminine in the new nation and the work of public opinion to reveal the truth under all the façade and masks of the formal public display.
Combined with the President with his prominent thumb’s up it seems to indicate more Bill Clinton than George W. Bush as the archetypal American leader. The all important rising sign in the Sabian US birth chart is 4th degree of Gemini:” A series of rooms in a hospitable house, opening one into the other, are decorated gaily with holly and mistletoe.” This would give the U.S. the appearance to the world of a wide open, spacious place filled with Christmas gifts and opportunities.
Together these three Sabian Symbols show a vision for the new nation that would be a welcoming land of opportunity and available gifts overflowing in the eyes of the world, with a friendly public opinion that still demands the absolute truth in the end of everyone in the public eye and a President who could be anyone with the outstretched hand and powerful thumb to manage this welcoming scenario.
Marc E. Jones’ Mundane Perspectives in Astrology sets out the details of relating U.S. history to US birth chart. The positions of the 7 planets known at the time of the Declaration of Independence are quite well arranged. Mars is in the first house giving a sense of initiative to the appearance of the new nation. The moon is in the 10th house making the public most powerful, creating a true democracy unknown in the world since the days of ancient Athens.
The sun is by the third house cusp (the hidden side of the third house) making the chief executive an efficient manager of national details not a powerful king. There is a powerful square between the sun and Saturn which further limits the chief executive and builds character through the need to face limitation and challenges to the personal will of the President.
Uranus is in the first house rising prominently which gives the new nation its spirit of independence and creative genius. Uranus was the first new planet discovered in 1781 while the U.S. was fighting the Revolutionary War to make its Declaration of Independence a fact.
,br>Neptune was the next planet discovered in 1846. It is closely square to Mars (the closest planetary aspect in the chart) which gives a problem with misguided initiatives and a tendency to overuse alcohol and drugs. Neptune is the planet of mysterious attachment. In close square to Mars—Intimate Initiative it gives the U.S. a tendency to base its national actions on the beliefs and moods of the nation rather than objective national interests.
The final planet discovered that is used in modern astrology is Pluto. Its discovery in 1930 is generally related to the upheavals and disruptions of the Depression. Pluto is the planet of ultimate commitment in the sign of Capricorn or firm control.
An entire page on what happens as Pluto changes sign is also accessible from the Campaign 2008 page. Pluto is retrograde in the ninth house which in a mundane (dealing with the world or politics) or national chart represents religion in opposition to Mercury (the closest Pluto aspect in the chart) which represents national propaganda.
The US birth chart given by Marc E. Jones works well, but does not explain what happened at about 2 am as the nearly full Moon could be seen approaching the zenith to give birth to the unique American Democracy. The standard reference source is Carl Becker’s The Declaration of Independence which notes as do all other sources that very little detail was recorded. Thomas Jefferson was tasked to write the first draft and present it to the Continental Congress of the 4th of July,1776.
It is known that he copied out by hand several copies of his final draft and that one of them disappeared. For a long time I wondered what magic ritual Jefferson could have done in the moonlit night to have his draft become the US birth chart. Then I read Becker’s history of the details of the drafting more carefully.
Becker notes,”Contrary to a tradition early established and long held, the Declaration was not signed by the members of Congress on July4. Neither the rough nor the corrected Journal shows any signatures, except that the printed copy in the rough Journal closes with these words, of course in print: ‘Signed by order and in behalf of the Congress, John Hancock, President.”
Since each member of the Continental Congress was to have their own copy to read and make their own notes during the debate upon the final wording, Thomas Jefferson worked with the printer Dunlap during the night before the discussion in Congress. Then the answer hit me. It was not anything magical or occult in any way. The act of printing was publication and publication for any work of literature is its time of birth for horoscope calculation.
The mystery was then solved, the type was set and the first printed copy pulled through the press at 1:52 am in the middle of the night to prepare a small edition of Jefferson’s final draft of the Declaration of Independence to be presented to the Continental Congress for debate when they convened in the morning. This was the birth time which Thomas Jefferson could easily have controlled in his supervision of the typesetting and final proofing to have the first official impression of the run occur as the moon had crossed the zenith.
There is no record of the actual debate, how long it lasted or even how it ended in what way that final point was recognized. In the Official Journal of the Continental Congress there is only a printed copy, prepared in the middle of the night before the debate and the final text as it was prepared and signed in August. The US birth chart was the time of printing of Jefferson’s draft to be submitted to Congress after the fact of the birth of the new United States.
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