Destiny’s Children – the Three Kennedy Brothers

by Marilyn Muir, LPMAFA

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In my recent book, Presidents of Hope and Change, President John F. Kennedy (JFK) was featured as one of the four primary presidents of hope and change. He was the only president of 43 who fit into every category of my astrological study of the role of our U.S. presidents. On August 26, 2009, we experienced the passing of JFK’s youngest brother, Edward M. Kennedy (Ted). He was the senior senator from Massachusetts, with 47 years of service in that role. A third brother, Robert F. Kennedy (RFK), was former USA Attorney General during his brother John’s tenure as president and was also an assassinated presidential candidate. I was curious to see if the president’s brothers also showed strong ties to the USA Virgo rising chart. What can we learn from Destiny’s Children?

Astrology is a study of energy and cycles with only a few destiny pointers, some of which happen to be present in the charts of these three Kennedy brothers. JFK’s is most pronounced with five, Ted is next with two, and RFK with one. If I were to look specifically at the political assassination of two young men, JFK and RFK, the pointers are easily visible. For Ted, who lived to the ripe old age of 77, his destiny reflected more the multiple tragedies of his family and his assumption of the family mantle of community service with his 47 years in the U.S. Senate. JFK’s communication and decision-making function (Mercury), his capacity to act on what he thought (Mars), and his sense of the larger picture (Jupiter) were tightly bundled in his eighth house destiny area, along with his self identity (Sun) and his social values (Venus). He remarked early in the trip to Dallas that if someone wanted to assassinate him, it would not be difficult. What a prophetic statement that turned out to be! Fully half of JFK’s available energy (the ten planets) was caught in that one destiny pattern.

To hold high office, such as president, vice president, supreme court judge or congressional legislator, individuals should show connections to the USA energies because of the importance of their roles. I located the birth information and constructed charts for the three Kennedy brothers. Because the question was about their service to our country, I also chose the USA Virgo rising chart. Using this USA chart as my base, I mapped the connections between each brother and our country and each of the brothers individually. Each man played a different role, so I would expect some connections to show individually. Because their destiny is a family legacy (dynasty) passing from one generation to another and one brother to another, I would expect to see the community service role taught to them by their parents passed from one to another as experience demanded. I was not disappointed in my expectations.

The three dominant energy patterns that influenced the writing of my Presidents book were:

the freedom, individualistic, future-oriented, change energy (Uranus) which plays itself out as the ambition, stature and goal (Midheaven) of the USA along with the emotional, humanity-oriented, sense of the electorate, and the populace (Moon in Aquarius);
the underlying spirituality or spiritual essence (Neptune) of the country; and
the country’s powerful communication pattern (Mercury/Pluto) that has attracted so many powerful people for roles or service within our government.

To accommodate the differing roles the three brothers played, I had to restructure my presidential viewpoint slightly. As mentioned, only President John F. Kennedy of our 43 presidents showed ties to all my chosen categories, so his is the most connected energy of the three brothers to the USA energy (not surprising as president). Following are the energies I found and their place in the destinies of the three Kennedy brothers.

Only President Kennedy experienced a key “presidential” energy. His personal sense of identity, ego, character (Sun) and his value system, ability to relate, and love of country (Venus) is conjunct the USA uniqueness, individuality and sense of hope and future (Uranus) and the stature, ambition, and accomplishment to the role of president (Midheaven).

Still within the first of the dominant energy patterns, the three brothers had unique connections to the people, the populace, and the electorate (Moon in Aquarius), and they were each connected to the people of the country.

JFK was connected through his future seeking, change orientation (Uranus),
RFK through his personal spiritual essence (Neptune),
and Ted with an exceptionally strong triple connection from his communication, decisions and grass-roots dialogue (Mercury), his education, philosophy, cultural sense of expansion (Jupiter) and his personal assertive/aggressive energy (Mars). Considering the legacy of his 47 years in the Senate, Ted is known for passing numerous bills and measures that crossed boundaries and bettered the lives of Americans in every way.

All three connected, each individually, each contributing who and what they were.

The powerful communication (Mercury/Pluto opposition) which is so strong in the USA energy was the second primary category and all three brothers had connections, very different, but unique to each brother and his skills and contribution to our country.

JFK showed an enormous, very public connection with responsibility (the buck stops here, Saturn), leadership, the world stage, the larger-than-life leader (Midheaven) using that powerful communication tool.
RFK poured so much of himself into his role as Attorney General, with his goals, ambitions and sense of accomplishment (MC), his philosophy, legal skill and sense of right and wrong (Jupiter), his extra-relational skills to go beyond one-on-one relating (Node), and his sense of family, his clan, his people, his country (Moon) with that powerful communication outlet.
Ted’s connection is that of responsibility, structure, definition (Saturn), and power-brokering (Pluto). He certainly did that to achieve the prodigious 47-year political contribution that he produced.

The third primary category is that of the country’s spiritual essence, our spirituality (Neptune) as a people. All three brothers connected solidly.

JFK’s connection was his sense of family, clan, country as his larger family (Moon).
RFK’s was his willingness to break down barriers, to change what needed to be changed, to move in the cause of change and the future (Uranus).
Ted’s was his ability to relate on a larger scale, such as society, or to break cultural barriers (Node), to instinctively “know” the rightness of his actions that he took in the name of his country and its people.

There are more connections, but these first three are primary. Each brother also connected to the identity of the country, our internal sense of self, what we want to be when we grow up, how we see ourselves as a people and as a country (Sun).

JFK’s connection was in the larger cultural sense that we are connected intimately to the world at large (Node). Good quality for a world leader.
RFK had four connections. Where RFK was strong, he was exceptionally strong, fewer categories overall, but his contribution was limited by the time available and the specific roles he played. The USA’s sense of identity as described above (Sun) was RFK’s goals, ambitions, achievements (MC), his sense of personal value and affection (Venus), his cultural and social expansion and sense of law (Jupiter), and an understanding of power and its use and misuse (Pluto). Does that sound anything like a USA Attorney General?
Ted’s coping skills and personal projection (Asc), coupled with the use of personal power (Pluto), made for very successful service to his country’s identity and how we see ourselves as a unit.

One more category that was expressed by all three brothers was that of the larger sense of the world and our place in it, to secure our place in an enlarging world society (Node).

JFK’s occurred through his own spiritual essence or spirituality, cultural, educational, imaginative, the dream or inspiration that drives humanity towards bettering itself (Neptune).
RFK’s was his sense of family, clan, safety and security on a gut level (Moon).
Ted’s was a sense of responsibility towards our emerging and evolving society (Saturn). This had a quirk in it (unaspected), so he changed over time and experience (don’t we all). What we would see of him when younger was from a sense of obligation to the past (Capricorn natal). What we would see of him as he aged (progressions) would be a sense of commitment to the future (Aquarius).

JFK and RFK shared the assertive, aggressive energy of the country (Mars), the ability to make things happen.

JFK’s was more conciliatory and diplomatic (Venus).
RFK’s came right out his mouth, his communication, his decisions, his statements (Mercury). This was the only separate pattern that joined these two brothers with the country’s energy.
Ted did not share in this particular energy.

Remember here as well, that JFK and RFK were the two brothers who were assassinated by gunshot (Mars).

JFK and Ted shared several more combinations. First is the USA sense of personal and fiscal responsibility (Saturn/2^nd).

JFK’s was quite personal, his coping skills and his personal projection (Ascendant).
Ted’s was more relational, one on one. He could make you feel like you were the only person he was interested in at the moment (Venus), unique, independent and future oriented (Uranus).

JFK and Ted shared connections to the US value system, economic, cultural, expansive (Venus/Jupiter).

JFK’s was through his sense of personal power (Pluto), What he did was copied, mimicked, and became a role model for society’s behavior.
Ted sought to embody through his coping skills and his personal projection (Ascendant) the values (Venus) of the country and enlarging society (Jupiter).

Last but not least, both JFK and Ted used themselves as coping skills and personal projections (Ascendants) for the country, both through their sense of home, hearth, family, clan, and society (Moon) and Ted’s additionally through his personal spiritual essence or spirituality (Neptune).

In the attempt to show how the three brothers served and related to our country, I have left out strictly personal connections with the exception of what follows. Having nothing in particular to do with the country as a specific, the brothers shared more patterns, all of them across the value axis of energy (Taurus/Scorpio).

What are my values, economic, personal, relational, spiritual?
What are your values, same list?
What are our values, same list?

This is a much larger picture than it first sounds. There is great fixity of purpose, the tendency to build brick-by-brick for the future, steady and enduring application of energy, sometimes the tendency to carry a burden too long. Two visible patterns emerge within this overall statement, one between RFK and Ted (5-6˚) and one between JFK and RFK (18-28˚). These were deep patterns of commitment and an understanding that their efforts would take place over a long period of time…dynasty.

Amazingly, these brothers were as close to royalty as the American public could stand; we are not by nature royalists. The generation of immigrants who gave birth to family dynasties, reared in community service ideals, competitive, forced to learn about the reality of life, cultured, educated, were children of the American dream. Plus, they gifted us with their wives.

First Lady Jackie Kennedy gave us culture and dignity. Along with her husband, the president, we glimpsed Camelot. I was there to witness that.
Ethel Kennedy, wife of RFK, was the consummate wife, mother, and friend, one with which we could all identify.
Victoria, wife of Ted, was described by her husband as someone who saved him when he was down, who lifted him up and supported him in much of what he accomplished. We watched her as she went through the days of his burial – gracious, kind and considerate, and we can see his personal truth of her support.
And the family…what can you say? They have had so much, lost so much, shown us what it is like to have each other continually – foibles, warts and all.

There are no perfect people in this world. It is a schoolhouse. But we have experienced a family who doesn’t hesitate to be the example, a beacon for service to our country. If they can do it, we can do it. Yes We Can! We are all Americans.

Published by AFA vol 73#9, August, 2011, republished with slight editing.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.