New York City, NY
by Marilyn Muir, LPMAFA
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After much searching through the history of what eventually became New York City, a very interesting and educational project, I was quite confused. Many reliable historical sources gave conflicting information about the incorporation of Manhattan as an official municipality. I finally chose 1653 as the right year from locating the following: New Amsterdam, which was later renamed New York, was formally incorporated as a city by the Dutch on February 2, 1653. Within a year, the British had captured the city, putting it under British rule and it was renamed New York City after the Duke of York. I had the birth date and location, but time is unknown, so noonmark is used. The universe then jumped in and played with my head again…
I set the natal, progressed and diurnal as usual, made files and printed them all out. Attempting to aspect progressed to natal, I was startled to see the progressions approximated natal angles. I thought I had made a computer entry error (garbage in, garbage out) or that my astrology program had made a mistake. You do know what a concept like that can do to a researcher’s head, don’t you? The program could make a mistake? What about all the other charts I have finished and published? So I did the whole chart construction over and got the same answers. Everything was accurate, entered correctly and the computer program and its charts were right. My astrology program (IO) rocks! Why? The universe turned on the lights. For the first time in more than forty years of astrological practice, I had a progression that traversed the complete 360˚ circle. 1653 + 360 y = 2013. The new degrees, while not exact, are very close to natal. Such a possibility has always been there, but this was my first encounter. It really can and did happen.
I need to take a different approach for explaining the aspects for this set of charts. This will be self-explanatory as I proceed, so be a little patient with my narrative. When I looked at the natal chart, the Sun and Mercury were close to the noonmark Midheaven with Mercury as chart ruler, and it was opposed Saturn by half a degree. That meant that if I moved Saturn forward by Primary Direction, that opposition would perfect itself about six months from the birth. Historical records said the city was conquered by the British and renamed within the year, 1654. Times were tough in the 1600s by comparison to today’s opportunities and transportation. Winters in that area would have made warfare practically impossible during the difficult months. The territory involved covered a great deal of what we call New England and not just the port city of New Amsterdam. Records are poor,
so pinning down the exact time and location for the change of one specific municipality is beyond sketchy at best. I only know it was already a done deal in 1654. Since I cannot pin down an actual moment, alternatively I will have to look at the motion of the planets involved. How exact was that aspect?
Both transiting Mercury and Saturn were retrograde. Mercury was traveling 1˚5’ retrograde. Saturn was much slower, 3’also retrograde . If noonmark is accurate as a birth time, the position of Mercury is exact. If the birth time is earlier in the day, then retrograde Mercury’s position would list higher minutes, decreasing the aspect orb to also retrograde Saturn. If the birth time occurred later in the day, then retrograde Mercury’s position would list lower minutes, increasing the orb between Mercury and Saturn by almost 3’ minutes per hour, allowing more time in progressed months for the aspect to perfect itself. This ballpark is close but not exact, and there is no way to make it exact through verifiable records. We have to do with what we have. I do think Saturn opposition the chart ruler within 1˚ indicates the Dutch loss of the city by war, changing the governorship (10th house / Midheaven) of the city itself. Remember, this is a complicated, advanced subject. If you had a problem following my reasoning, please re-read this paragraph until it clarifies. The reasoning in this paragraph is accurate. The reason I am pointing this out is that…
- The 2012 New York City (NYC) progressed Sun is 8 Aquarius 49 triggering that natal Mercury / Saturn opposition, with natal Mercury at 8 Aquarius 13R and natal Saturn at 8 Leo 44R, 5’ of orb. Bingo.
- I previously listed the 6 Scorpio 48 Full Moon that occurred just as Sandy closely approached the NJ / NY coastline. Manhattan took the hit for the state of NY with both the transiting Sun and Moon square the natal and progressed positions just given. The actual Hurricane Sandy Sun position for the NYC hit was 6 Scorpio 41 conjunct Saturn 2 Scorpio 52. As an event, Hurricane Sandy’s 8:00 PM landfall Moon is 8 Taurus 53. That completes a grand cross between NYC natal Mercury opposite Saturn and Sandy Moon opposite Sun with Sandy’s Saturn along for the ride.
- The NYC progressed noonmark Ascendant is 29 Taurus 42, the fixed star Pleiades position. “Something to weep about” is the common definition and, in my experience, it appears to be a water-related fixed star. Hurricane Sandy was definitely something for New York City to weep about.
Before I go any further, let me reference the Dutch founding of NYC. Activity in the area was first known to be 1524 with the arrival of explorer Giovanni da Verrazano (see previous chapter). He anchored off Sandy Hook, NJ across the river from what would be called Manhattan, and landed on Manhattan the morning of April 17, 1524. Leaving the ship and traveling unknown and potentially hostile territory at night was just not done in the 1500s. These discovery charts were provided in Chapter 4. Since Sandy Hook is a half hour ferry ride from the lower tip of Manhattan, the chart should be as accurate for New York City as it is for New Jersey, so I will not repeat that material here. That whole area northward and eastward from the tip of Manhattan was the area of the original exploration by European countries and was developed for hunting and fur trade reasons. Transportation was by ship and by land over hostile territory, and housing was on the ship, traveling camps and trading posts. Families and the possibility of municipality were not introduced until later in the process.
Found Manhattan (New York City Natal)
February 2, 1653, 12:00 PM LMT
Manhattan, NY
New York City thumbnail Manhattan / NYC is an Aquarian energy, the new world, the new city, pioneering and trail blazing, clearly the bent and the futuristic drive of the city. As mentioned, Gemini is rising, so communication, transportation and data gathering would be key. Pluto is rising also in Gemini, with the power, positioning, influence, big brother concept clearly visible, “The Big Apple”. The Aries Moon would indicate
the I / me / mine thrust towards lunar emotional security issues. This Aquarius / Gemini / Aries city was founded as cutting edge and remains so until this day. Jupiter in the 9th shows the gateway to the world and Venus and Uranus in the 8th are an indicator of huge financial markets and opportunities.
Because I am always interested in U.S. Virgo rising chart connections, natal to natal, tight orbs:
- NYC natal noonmark Ascendant 6 Gemini 16 conjunct U.S. natal Uranus / Midheaven 8 Gemini 52-54.
- NYC natal Saturn 8 Leo 44R conjunct U.S. natal N Node 6 Leo 35R.
- NYC natal Jupiter 29 Capricorn 16 conjunct U.S. natal Pluto 27 Capricorn 34R.
- NYC natal S Node 23 Virgo 04 conjunct U.S. natal Neptune 22 Virgo 24 square NYC natal Neptune 23 Sagittarius 00.
- NYC natal Venus 6 Capricorn 14 opposite U.S. natal Jupiter 5 Cancer 51.
- NYC natal Moon 14 Aries 45 opposite U.S. natal Saturn 14 Libra 47. Bingo!
There is always more, but I think that shows the connectedness between the country and the city.
What about the connections between the city and the state it helped found? New Amsterdam was formed as a city while the explorers and then the colonists were still charting the territory that would eventually become the state of New York and the other New England states. By standard rules, the later chart should be compared to the earlier chart. The earliest chart will always be the base reference with any later chart serving as activation to the earlier chart. Remember both New York and New Jersey, where Sandy Hook is located, are almost visible to one another at the point we call Manhattan.
Both states have the Leo stellium previously discussed, natal for New York and progressed for New Jersey. This comparison is therefore NY State to NY City:
- NYS natal Sun 4 Leo 13, Midheaven 2 Leo 45, Uranus 00 Leo 45 conjunct NYC natal Saturn opposed Mercury as given.
- NYS Mercury 16 Leo 03R, opposite Pluto 16 Aquarius 49R, opposite NYC Sun 14 Aquarius 24, square NYC Mars 13 Scorpio 06.
- NYS Neptune 18 Libra 33 widely opposite NYC noonmark Moon 14 Aries 45.
- NYS Mars 20 Virgo 02 widely conjunct NYC S Node 23 Virgo 04.
These are not necessarily all the aspects possible, but enough to show the connections between the noonmark natals for the city and the state which it helped found and in which it resides.
Manhattan Progressed
October 29, 2012, 12:00 PM LMT
Manhattan, NY
Manhattan Diurnal
October 29, 2012, 12:00 PM LMT
Manhattan, NY
The same connections will show in progressed to progressed and progressed to natal between the various legal entities. See the chapter 5 spreadsheet which follows. For the balance of this chapter, I will focus on the founding of Manhattan comparing its natal, Sandy progressed and Sandy diurnal.
- As mentioned, the progressed NYC Sun is 8 Aquarius 49 conjunct the NYC natal chart ruler Mercury at 8 Aquarius 13R opposite NYC natal Saturn at 8 Leo 44R, triggering the natal opposition. NYC progressed Pluto has moved only a little over a degree forward in 360 days / years to 13 Gemini 12R, but now it is accompanied by NYC progressed Moon 13 Gemini 38. That is an amazing statement. Personal progression for Pluto is a little over a degree in motion over a 360-year period. Amazing!
There are other progressed positions, but they do not activate the natal. We must look to the diurnal chart and the transiting positions to see more activations. We will start with the key aspects we have noticed repeating themselves throughout the charts we have examined (early cardinal, early fixed and mid-mutable):
- Early cardinal: Sandy diurnal Venus / Uranus / Pluto T-square: NYC natal Venus 6 Capricorn 14, progressed Uranus 3 Capricorn 05.
- Early fixed: closest NYC natal Mercury / Saturn opposition, NYC progressed Sun 8 Aquarius 49, noonmark NYC progressed Midheaven 5 Aquarius 24.
- Mid-mutable: NYC natal Pluto 12 Gemini 09R and NYC progressed Pluto 13 Gemini 12R conjunct NYC Moon 13 Gemini 38.
- Early mutable: NYC noonmark natal Ascendant 6 Gemini 16 and NYC progressed N Node 4 Pisces 22.
Please refer to the following spreadsheet to see all this information in a color-coded format.
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