Astrology of Tuesday, July 6

History sets precedents for the astrology of today, so bear with me as I set the stage.

Today, there is a question of who is “real American” and therefore has a right to vote. (Currently transiting Chiron in Aries is moving to a return of its original placement in Aries in the US Sibley chart.) Just a couple of days ago, we celebrated the certification of the Declaration of Independence. For its time, it was a radical document. No one had ever said “we hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal.” That was unheard of. For centuries, men pledged fealty to their king or master or lord. Men accepted that they were born into the station of life that their father occupied and felt they had little chance to change it.

Of course these self evident rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" were only extended to white men. Not to enslaved persons. And certainly not to any woman. In fact, there was great debate about whether or not these rights extended to white men without property. Landed aristocrats wanted these rights to extend only to other landed people. They didn't want just anyone making decisions that might run counter to their interests. (Pluto in Capricorn - taking out the garbage of our original founding and transforming it - active as Pluto returns, for the first time, to the place it occupied when the declaration was signed).

In the United States Sibley Chart, Saturn in Libra, the landed, influential business leaders are at the very top o the chart. In the Sibley chart, Saturn trines Mars in Gemini (force) and Uranus (exiles, outcasts) in the 6th house of service. The landed gentry have always had a servant class, often outcasts, enslaved or indentured people.

The same question - who should be able to vote - arose during the Civil War. The South held that enslaved people should not be allowed to vote or their whole economic system would collapse. A southern legislator said publicly that immigrants in the north would not be so troublesome if they were controlled like slaves in the south. What right did immigrants have, they reasoned, to vote for policies that made it harder for business to prosper?

Right now, the same debate is taking place. The GOP is trying to suppress a universal right to vote democratically by defining who is eligible to vote. The excuse for that is the made up problem of fraudulent votes. Missouri, where I live, had one case of fraud on average for each of the last eleven years. If that is a policy making situation, why can't we do something about gun violence. We have much more than a case of that a year!

In many red states, access to voting is significantly harder for black and brown communities. To make sure red and purple states stay that way, election boards will be appointed by the ruling party. Drawing districts so that one party is the winner (gerrymandering) is another tactic.

The aspect of the year is Saturn in Aquarius square Uranus in Taurus implies a clash of the old and the new. But since Uranus rules Aquarius, what is old and why is no is not clean cut. These issues are intertwined with their past. The issue of who should be defined as vote worthy has been unresolved. A civil war did not resolve it. Saturn rules time and can be repressive. Taurus is pretty traditional. Both are very fixed energies.

Historically, the South lost the Civil War. But the Jim Crow laws that followed the war undid much of the intent of the Civil War to give the vote to black Americans. Through terror, mob lynchings, massacres that are not mentioned in the history books, poll taxes and the like, black Americans were not allowed to vote freely or to gain wealth.

If these voter suppression, dark money, and partisan election board policies are allowed to stand, it is theoretically possible not to see another Democratic victory for a long time. I think these laws will ultimately fail, but if allowed to stand, as the Supreme Court seemed willing to do in Arizona, it may take a long time. And that is a problem. Because we do not have a long time. The GOP denies the effects of climate change. Climate change is NOW, as the collapse of the Surfside Condominiums in Florida testifies. Bold action on climate change needs to happen now, but we can’t even get a bipartisan passage of a voting rights bill - let alone act in a concerted way to combat climate change! As ever, short term economics and politicians' desire to be re-elected rule the day!

This is not the popular will. It is the obstruction of a minority of GOP leaders in Congress that is the problem.

There is chaos (Uranus) in the norms of our society (Taurus). Ultimately, we need the chaos in the tried and true to open the door to change. But timing is the problem. The repression (Saturn) of democracy (Aquarius) is frightening. We are out of time

And now, Saturn in Aquarius is being opposed by Mars and Venus in Leo as it is challenged by Uranus in Taurus. This forms what is known as a t square. There is an open fourth leg of the T square in Scorpio. The open leg is the way out of the dilemma. Scorpio digs to find the hidden source of the trouble and is ruthless about digging up and letting go that which needs to go. As all the outer planets go retrograde this summer, traveling over what has been done previously, secrets will be exposed. We can't afford to look away from these ugly secrets if we value our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and want to see those rights to extend to everyone (Uranus).

This is too big for Congress or President Biden to handle alone. We must, each of us, decide who we want to be and vote, vote, vote for what we want to see in the world. It is up to each of us to take a stand.