Uranus Pluto Square — America In Crisis — Part One — The USA Progressed Chart

Reeling through the years.

In order to get a better idea as to what is happening with our current crisis in the USA, especially under the heat of the latest Uranus/Pluto square, it might be helpful for us to get a different perspective from the progressed chart of the USA. For those of you that are not familiar with the progressed chart, here is how it essentially beaks down. The personal planets; Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars, progress through their sign from the natal inception at roughly one degree per year. So if you were born a Gemini at fifteen degrees and you are now twenty-five. you would now be a Cancer at roughly 10 degrees. The outer planets move at a glacial pace and are likely in the same sign that they were at the time of the natal chart. The ascendant moves as at one degree per year as well. So not only will your personal planets shift, so will your rising sign, thus placing those progressed planets in progressed houses.

The progressed chart can give us a glimpse as to how we are evolving and who we are evolving into. When applying transits to the progressed chart, degrees of influence are traditionally much closer in interpretation than in the natal chart. The general rule of thumb is one-two degrees, especially when it comes to the outer planets. Okay, now that you have some basic understanding of the progressed chart, we can zoom in on the progressed chart for the USA.

I have stated previously, that I use the Sibley chart for USA interpretations, for a number of reasons, but the key reason being that with the Sag ASC, it conforms to the notion of expansion with territory and manifest destiny. Also, for many of the early settlers, religion was a key factor for their migration to the new world and Sag on the ASC also promises the potential to practice one’s faith freely. Lastly, the horse played a huge role in the expansion of the country and Sag rules horses.

When looking at the progressed chart, we can see dramatic changes. The ascendant is now Virgo, which is very, very different than the original rising sign. Sag is carefree, fun loving and avuncular. It can also be a bit overbearing, pompous and philosophical to a fault. It’s open to just about anything as long as it provides a sense of adventure, and the opportunity to learn from life as a spiritual teacher. While Sag lords over orthodox religions, it also demands that faith has some basis in reality, especially on the ASC, as the self learns through life lessons and the expansion of which becomes the stored wisdom, which imbues faith and allows the individual to become more SAGacious and wise.

Technically, in the birth chart of the USA, this should also be the case, but sadly, other factors have compromised this evolution and potential. Instead, the USA, from the perspective of the birth chart has engaged in other Sag activities that for better or worse weakened this position. Sag is connected to foreign countries and long distance travel. Once the USA had expanded from sea-to-shining-sea, there was no longer any room, unless one counts both Hawaii and Alaska (and we should). So what was left? The world at large.

The USA, has been involved in overseas conflicts and wars, both overt and covert wars since it’s inception. But things really picked up with “The Civil War.” The Civil War itself is yet another indicator of the rightness of the Sibley chart, since Gemini is on the cusp of the USA 7th House of relationships and contracts. Here we see the split, the bi-furcation of the country. North vs South, brother vs brother. That split although hemmed back together through the defeat off The South and the unification of the Union, has never really healed and in fact the country itself is bordering on social schizophrenia.

Post Civil War, the USA quickly got involved in aforementioned Spanish/American conflict, then there was WW!, WW!!, Korea, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Angola, Iraq I, Iraq II, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc., etc.. And these are the conflicts we can see on the surface. Get the continental drift? One could make a case that the first house and the ASC is in the service of the second and in the USA chart, that second house is Capricorn dominant and we know that the goat rules over corporations and governments, so through global expansion (Sag) corporate interests in the second house (resources, assets, values) are supported. Here is a case in point. After WWII, when large chunks of Japan had been decimated by bombs and the economy gutted due to war spending, who do you think stepped right in as part of “The Marshall Plan”? Why the good ole USA and it’s corporate interests, setting up cheap manufacturing and labor. It is rumored that SONY stands for “Standard Oil Of New York” which would make it a Rockefeller created entity. From electronics, to cars, to toys, Japan became the manufacturing juggernaut of the mid-twentieth century. American corporations profited mightily from the rapid rebuild and investment of capital in Japan and it’s people. Over time, the wars weren’t no longer needed and the USA just outsourced contracts and labor overseas, again Sag ASC.

In the progressed USA chart, the country is now a Virgo ASC and this is a very different look and function to the world and the country itself. Virgo is a lot more conservative than Sag in how it presents itself. It is not a dominant ascendant by any stretch. In fact, its greatest strength is to perform in some kind of service capacity to the world at large. With this ASC, the USA “should” be delivering aid, and assisting other countries. In some ways, we can see this at work in the so-called Ebola crisis. Virgo’s job is to essentially heal and theoretically, this is what is taking place in West Africa, but as always, with a chart and a life, there is much more than meets the eye. We will look at this and much, much more as this post and series continues tomorrow.