by Marilyn Muir, LPMAFA
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In 2009, I wrote a book on United States politics using the birth chart for July 4, 1776 at 9:36 AM LMT, Philadelphia, PA. At that time, I read and researched various astrological offerings by a multitude of astrologers. As I did the preliminary research, I had access to all sorts of event data and compared each of those chart possibilities against the collected event data. I eventually settled on the Virgo rising chart postulated by astrologer Mike Munkasey, which was proven quite conclusively by his research and re-proven for me by my own research. Once established, I performed the same rectification procedure with all 43 presidents. That particular piece of research was the basis for my book: Presidents of Hope and Change. Unfortunately, at that time I was unable to use the balance of the material generated in that research. It was all useable material, but I just did not have time to develop it.
About a month ago my friend, astrologer Theresa McDevitt, published an article entitled “The Tea Parties” in the January, 2012 American Federation of Astrologers “Today’s Astrologer”. In that article she paired the Boston Tea Party with the modern Tea Party movement and offered comparative work on the founding of the Republican Party and the modern Tea Party movement as well. As I read the article and discussed her conclusions with Theresa, I got very interested in pursing that long-ago unused material that I had developed during my initial political research. Not only could I tie the USA Virgo rising birth chart to both Tea Party charts, I could tie them together with all the event charts surrounding the birth of the USA. It was finally time to put that material together and see what other astrologers might think of my conclusions. Where to begin? A historical timeline will set our stage.
The Boston Tea Party occurred over a three-hour period on the evening of December 16, 1773 in Boston Harbor, MA. Colonial citizens dressed as American Indians stole aboard three English ships and dumped the cargo of bulk tea into Boston harbor as one act of an ongoing protest against the Tea Act and taxes levied by the British government. Other events had preceded the Boston Tea Party and many others succeeded that act, but the use of only a few events is possible for this article and is presented in date order.
The 1st Constitutional Congress met on September 5, 1774 at 10:09 AM in Philadelphia, PA, the first of several constitutional conventions that eventually let to the Declaration of Independence.
The Constitutional Congress of the time declared war on Britain July 6, 1775 at 10:45 AM in Philadelphia, PA.
The Declaration of Independence itself was finalized on July 4, 1776 at 9:36 AM, also in Philadelphia.
The Articles of Confederation were adopted on November 15, 1777 at 2:49 PM in York, PA and were signed and ratified on March 1, 1781 noonmark, also in Philadelphia.
The formal British surrender of the Revolutionary War was September 27, 1782 at 10:18 AM in Paris, France1.
The Articles of Confederation were not suited to the formation of a working government, so after several months of heated discussion, the U.S. Constitution was presented as a modification and was ratified and adopted on September 17, 1787 at 11:29 AM, again in Philadelphia.
The actual beginning of the US Constitutional government was March 4, 1789 at midnight, but was scheduled to begin (with people) at noon in New York City, NY. President-elect George Washington was due to be sworn in at that time, but was out of town and unable to attend. Remember that conditions were primitive at the time, and travel by horse arduous. Other swearings-in did occur as scheduled.
George Washington was inaugurated officially on April 30, 1789 at 1:48:30 PM in New York City, NY. This completes my timeline of the founding of the USA. Note that the timeline we are observing begins in 1773 and ends in 1789, an ongoing process.
In my experience, when charts are significant to one another and it is necessary to trigger the charts simultaneously, there must be close degree stimulation between the charts. For example, a daughter who lives with me must have connecting degrees from her chart to mine so they may be triggered simultaneously. Her Pluto is exactly conjunct my IC within ½ ˚. Her chart ruler Mars is opposed my chart ruler Mercury 21˚ to 21˚. Makes for an interesting household!
In order to aspect a multiple of charts such as this exercise, I create an Excel spreadsheet. Across the top I list the Midheaven, Ascendant, 10 bodies and N Node. Line by line I list the pertinent information of each of the charts. This only takes a few minutes and all the necessary information is concisely located in about 1 to 2 inches of space.
For this project, I used only conjunctions and oppositions within as tight an orb as possible. My reasons? 1) To me, hard aspects produce events and I prefer the axial pairings; and 2) when you are comparing several charts, the orbs tend to spread themselves naturally from chart to chart. A planetary conjunction within a single chart may give a spread that connects with positions in other charts. I did not want to have orbs that were so wide you could explain just about anything. My choices fall into the value judgment category. Other aspects besides the conjunction and opposition could be studied easily as well. I color code the connections between the charts on the spreadsheet or list each aspect grouping separately, so I only have to do the aspects once. One caution to this method: out of sign aspects can be easily missed so do pay attention to that possibility.
- The Revolutionary War itself began with Mars conjunct the Ascendant (sounds like war), which was conjunct within one degree the Saturn of the 1st Continental Congress, the Saturn of the Boston Tea Party, and the Neptune of the adoption of the Articles of Confederation.
- Close by, within a four-degree orb ties together the Neptune of the 1st Continental Congress, the Declaration of the Revolutionary War, all USA Declaration of Independence charts and the Sun of the adoption of the US Constitution.
- An adjacent grouping between 20 and 24 again ties the Neptunes as previously described with the Mercury of the signing and ratification of the Articles of Confederation, the Mars of the British surrender, the Sun of the adoption of the US Constitution, the Mercury of the US Constitutional government beginning, and the Saturn of the inauguration of George Washington.
For those who like specifics, the full spread was 20:03 to 28:43 divided into two groupings:
USA birth (all) Nep 22 Vir 24
Boston Tea Pty Nep 20 Vir 32 Sat 25 Vir 49
1st Cont Congr Nep 20 Vir 00 Sat 27 Vir 15
Decl Revol War: Nep 20 Vir 17 Asc 26 Vir 32, Mars 27 Vir 22
Adopt Art/Confed Nep 28 Vir 43
Sign/ratif Art/Conf Mer 20 Pis 57
British surrender Mar 22 Vir 54
Adopt US Constit Sun 24 Vir 39 Sun 24 Vir 39
US govt begin Mer 22 Pis 47
Inaug G Wash Sat 20 Pis 03
That list shows all the charts connected by close conjunction and opposition in all instances. Let us try another grouping…again Vir / Pis, adjacent the 10˚ area.
USA birth (all) Asc 11 Vir 46
Boston Tea Pty Asc 15 Vir 13
(I think it might be earlier: 10:44 PM, Asc 12 Vir 06)
1st Cont Congr Sun 13 Vir 02, Nod 13 Vir 04 wide Moo 07 Vir 44
Sign/ratif Art/Conf Sun 11 Pis 33 wide MC 08 Pis 11
British surrender Ven 10 Vir 00 MC 09 Vir 13
Adopt U. Constit Mer 11 Vir 35, wide Ven 16 Vir 34
US govt begin MC 10 Vir 53, Sat 13 Pis 35, Sun 14 Pis 06
Inaug G Wash Asc 11 Vir 10
On this list, two events did not connect: the declaration of war and the adoption of the Articles of Confederation. Other positions within the charts might provide alternate connections. There are three distinct groupings but the whole spread is from 7:44 to a speculative 15:13.
One more example and I think I will have proven my point that there must be strong degree connections between associated charts, all USA Uranus 8 Gem 53-55.
USA birth Vir ris MC 8 Gem 52, Ura 8 Gem 54
Boston Tea Pty 12 Gem 31
(if 10:44 PM MC 8 Gem 46)
Decl Revol War Jup 9 Gem 36 Ura 4 Gem 54
Adopt Art/Confed Moo 4 Gem 02
British surrender Moo 9 Gem 26
Adopt US Constit Moo 4 Sag 55
US govt begin Moo 4 Gem 52
Inaug G Wash MC 8 Gem 00
The 1st Constitutional Congress and the signing and ratification of the Articles of Confederation did not connect with this degree span in this specific example, so we would look for other connections. The total spread was from 4:02 to 12:31 given in three divisions.
As I noted, I would not be surprised if the 11:00 pm birth time of the Boston Tea Party might have occurred a few minutes earlier. The degree match-up would be much tighter – 8 Gem 46.
I was not able to add the information about the 2009 Tea Party and the Republican Party in this brief article due to space considerations.
1I found many choices (dates and locations) for this event but preferred to stay with the professional astrological choices in Mike Munkasey’s research.
Sources:
Boston Tea Party chart: Astrologer Theresa McDevitt
USA events: Astrologer Michael Munkasey quoting various historical and astrological sources
Inauguration of George Washington: Book A Time for Astrology, Jess Stern
Published on AFA In the News online May 2012, republished with slight editing.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.