Freedom Isn’t Freedom Unless Everyone is Free

The United States is having a powerful Solar Return!

Our country was born with the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. Our final eclipse of the summer, and for that matter the final eclipse in the Cancer/Capricorn axis, will be a penumbral lunar eclipse with the Moon in Capricorn at 13°38’ directly opposite the U.S. Sun at 13°13’.

Penumbral Eclipses happen on the edge of the Earth's Shadow

Bernadette Brady, one of the foremost researchers of eclipses, wrote the following about this SS149 eclipse:

“Independence and freedom – make sudden moves and happy unions, through sudden upsets. Discovering weakness in associations.”

One would have to be living under a rock to not realize that there are dramatic changes afoot here in the United States, but it never ceases to amaze me how the Grand Celestial Clock keeps time!

We are on the brink of the Pluto return of the United States, which will happen on February 20, 2022 when he reaches 27°33’ Capricorn. As he does every year, Pluto will go retrograde and cross over this sensitive degree 3 times in 2022.

Pluto takes his own sweet time to travel through the zodiac. This will be the first time that he has returned to this natal position since our country’s founding!

Panning back a bit to gain a little more clarity on what is happening today in the United States, let’s take a glance back at some of the events that led to the messy birth of our union.

Our Country’s Origins

We tend to think fondly of the patriots who risked life, limb, and fortune for the ideal of independence from a tyrannical and authoritarian government, but there were quite a few “Loyalists” who did not want to rock the boat with their cousins in Great Britain. Much like the battles that we see in our modern-day political arena, our forefathers did not all get along…there were even several duels to the death!

There were many events that led to our ultimate Independence from England:

When the Boston Tea Party happened on December 16, 1773, Pluto was at 21° Capricorn.

The British retaliated through the Intolerable Acts from March through June of 1774, and Pluto had advanced through Capricorn to 24°.

When the First Constitutional Congress convened from September 5 through October 26, 1774, Pluto had retrograded back to 22° Capricorn.

Then by the time of Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death” speech on March 23, 1775, Paul Revere’s, “The British are coming!” on April 18, 1775, and the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, Pluto had moved up to 26° Capricorn.

In January 10, 1776, when Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” was published, Pluto was still at 26° Capricorn, but as his 50-page pamphlet circulated throughout the fledgling colonies over the next several months and became a best seller, Pluto advanced all the way up to 28° of Capricorn.

Payne’s idea of independence paved the way for the Declaration of Independence, which of course was signed on July 4, 1776. Pluto was retrograde at 27°.

I give the positions of Pluto to demonstrate how slowly he moves in tandem with social events down here on Earth.

Contrary to the tales that many of us were told in school, the origins of the United States happened against a backdrop of ironic inequality.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…”

Most of the men who signed our founding document owned slaves, and while we have moved to eradicate slavery in this country, we still have far to go in terms of creating true equality. For that matter, the Equal Rights Amendment has yet to be ratified!

Pluto in Capricorn has been working to expose and uproot the unjust authority structures that have been entrenched in our world.

He has had some strong help from a few of his neighbors through the years as they have and will continue to agitate him and provoke the unearthing of our individual and collective shadows.

From June 24, 2012 through March 16, 2015 Uranus in Aries squared Pluto 7 times. Last year, both Pluto and Saturn stationed on Pluto’s south node at 20° Capricorn, striking an ominous, “Oh yes, this is happening and there is no avoiding it” energy. This year began with a powerful conjunction between Pluto and Saturn.

Now we have Mars in his home sign of Aries where he will reside for an unprecedented 6 months. Normally Mars only spends a couple of months in each sign, but this year he will go retrograde, which means that he will be closer to the Earth than he normally is.

Mars “the god of war” is extraordinarily strong in Aries! This would normally be a great time to expect a lot more energy to accomplish all of our tasks and goals, but set within the context of life on Earth during 2020, however, given that we have already begun the transformational effects that Pluto and Saturn began with their conjunction at 22°47’ Capricorn this past January, this particular Mars retrograde is certain to be a lot more complicated and challenging.

Mars in Aries, who loves to move forward, will go retrograde later this summer on September 9th at 28°09’ until mid-fall, after the U.S. election, on November 16th at 13°14’, during which time he will square Jupiter, Pluto, and Saturn 3 times, over the course of his journey through Aries. The effects of this will be up to each and every one of us. It is our choice how we choose to channel the energies that we experience.

We are also amid 3 Jupiter/Pluto conjunctions and 5 Eris/Pluto squares, which began on January 26th of this year and will run until October of 2021. All of this has set certain transformational energies and potentialities into motion.

Along with the potent energy that we will be working with during the rest of 2020, on July 1st Saturn moved back into Capricorn for one last visit until he re-enters Aquarius. We have some powerful energy to harness and to get much accomplished. The key is in how we choose to focus it!

The Legend of Two Wolves

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.

He said, "My son, the battle is between two "wolves" inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

Photo by Michael LaRosa on Unsplash

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The transformative nature of Pluto gives us a huge opportunity to bring to the surface our deepest shadows, which we have been doing our best to repress and deny. Because the U.S. is having its Pluto Return, it is an especially powerful time for us Americans to re-imagine what this country can represent and be, but while the United States is intensely at the center of much of the drama, the whole world is getting this cosmic reboot.

When our shadows are made visible, we can no longer pretend that they aren’t there. We must do something about them!

What is your vision for the world? Create your plan and act on it. This is not the time to procrastinate or be blind-sided. Now is the time. We chose this time. We have been forged for it!