Like any entity, the United States of America has a birth chart. Mundane Astrology is the astrology of places and real-world events. Richard Tarnas’ book Cosmos and Psyche has become quite a popular read again, and for good reason. However, Tarnas did not mention Chiron at all. This is, by no means, an exhaustive study on the topic of racism in America’s chart, or of America’s chart in general, but let’s dip in anyway.
IMPORTANT: This is a blog post written by a white woman about the astrology of racism in the USA’s Sibly chart. If that sounds like something that may hurt you, it may be best not to continue. Of course, hurting anyone was never my intention here. I try to talk about most things with respect, but I am not always right. If there is something in here that is offensive, please contact me and bring it to my attention. I am more than happy to listen and make changes. Thank you in advance!
What’s the point of racism? I’ve never understood it, though I’ve lived a fairly sheltered childhood. A Navy brat, I grew up having friends and being around people of all colors. My parents never said one word about anyone’s race. It literally was never discussed. I was taught that everyone is to be treated equally. At 13, after my parents divorced, I moved to what was basically an all-white neighborhood until I was 18. Diversity was sorely lacking, and that’s an understatement.
So, I never really saw active racism in my formative years. It was always in the background, under the surface. Overt racism or calling anyone out for their race, in my school, never happened (not that I witnessed). Race never came up. I left high school with zero experience in racism. I actually debated with a friend about it after HS graduation. She said racism was still a thing, but I attributed the inequality to class alone. I thought it was people in poverty that got the short end of the stick, no matter their race. Boy, was I wrong!
Thinking about what’s been happening across the country as of late, what can we learn about racism in America’s chart? Let’s find out. If something is happening, there’s got to be an energetic reason for it. Then we can see if we can express this energy another way, healing our country and working to eradicate racism once and for all.
The key placements I believe we need to look at are the T-square between Mercury, Chiron, and Pluto, Moon in Aquarius, Saturn in Libra, and the Cancer stellium.
But first…
Defining Racism
I define racism as prejudice or judgment against a person solely based on their skin color or ethnicity, as well as any subsequent actions taken against them as a result.
According to Dictionary.com, racism has three meanings:
1 – a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human racial groups determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one’s own race is superior and has the right to dominate others or that a particular racial group is inferior to the others.
2 – a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination.
3 – hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.
Racism is disgusting and we need to work to expel it from consciousness forever. Sadly, it’s very pervasive and spans all over the world, not only in the USA. I’m not going into racism around the globe because I’d like to focus on the problem facing Americans right now and I do think America is a unique case, being as it’s a democracy made of immigrants from literally every continent.
One of my favorite astrologers, Tom Jacobs, did a recording of his thoughts about racism in America a couple of years ago and I cannot recommend it enough. It literally blew my mind! It’s long but full of good info.
Patriotism
Every country has a form of institutionalized patriotism, as Tom Jacobs discusses in his video. It got me thinking.
What is patriotism? What energies are in the makeup of patriotism? Let’s start with my definition: patriotism is the feeling of pride, loyalty to, and love for one’s country – to the country’s actual foundation. It’s not about blindly following a leader of that country or even the military. It is about a deep resonance with the underlying energies of the country and a person feeling deeply bonded to that.
Dictionary.com defines patriotism as: devoted love, support, and defense of one’s country; national loyalty.
So, a bit broader but the idea of pride, loyalty, support, and defense of country is there.
I don’t know about you but those words remind me of the 8th house and the Cancer and Scorpio archetypes. I have a stellium in the 8th and I am well-versed in the capacity of that house to summon very strong feelings. I know that Leo is most often the sign connected with “pride” but I believe the fixed signs, in general, have strong connections to pride. Pride is often stubborn, slow to move, and deep. When someone has pride in something, they often can’t hear two but’s about it. Totally fixed energy.
Edit June 11, 2020: Just to be thorough, Leo, Cancer, and their corresponding houses also have to do with pride and loyalty. Cancer is an especially patriotic sign. The correlation between pride, loyalty, support, and the 8th house is my own idea. It’s probably not written in a book although it certainly could be! The 8th house is about strong emotional bonding and the power others have over us. This makes me think of patriotism, pride in something you love (country), loyalty to it, defense of it, etc. Patriotism is a mixture of emotions – I don’t believe we can find it in one house or sign. Because America’s Sibly chart has both a Cancer stellium and heavy 8th house energy, this jumps out to me as intensely patriotic (end of 6/11/20 edit).
The 8th House of the USA
America has a stellium in the 8th house, in Cancer. It’s part of that major T-square in the country’s chart. The energy of the country itself is so prideful of its “family” and protecting itself, that it stubbornly ignores its shortcomings and its problems. Does this mean a country with no 8th house influence lacks pride in itself? Not at all, but I do think it’s safe to say that American pride is one of the strongest in the world. People from other countries have pride in America. This may be fluctuating but I think they still believe in us.
The T-Square with Mercury, Chiron & Pluto
Pride can often get in the way of objectivity. The United States has been ignoring its wound. Obviously, not everyone in the country is doing this. Obviously, there are many people and many groups that have been fighting for social justice every day. But, until the collective joins in, things can fall through the cracks. We need to face this as a country.
We are all so focused on not having enough (Pluto 2nd) and battling this strange patriotism, this unbridled pride for our family unit (8th Cancer stellium) that our wounds about race, inequality, and who really belongs here (Chiron 4th) festers. It’s painful and it’s deep.
In T-squares, the focal planet always gets the brunt of the deal whenever the energies are out of balance, which is very easy to do and very common. The opposition is usually where the “main attraction” is and the focal planet, the one squaring the opposition, usually picks up the slack but also suffers tremendously.
In the photo below, the red triangle represents the T-square, F.P. in black represents the focal planet, and the G.P. in black at the other end of the blue line represents what I call the Ghost Point, which I will get into.
In the Sibly chart, Mercury in Cancer opposing Pluto in Capricorn is where the attention is (the people vs power), but Chiron is left as the peacemaker, but it’s in Aries – not exactly a peacemaker type sign. After fighting each other, either Mercury or Pluto totally shits on Chiron. Chiron is trying to hold the weight of the tension itself but Chiron can only do this for so long. Indeed, Chiron is noble, but Chiron is eternally wounded.
At times, America feels it is above all of this race bullshit. America is the land of opportunity for everyone, right? Everyone can make it here, right? We see no color, we are colorblind, right? Racism, what? You mean the shit we got over in the 1960s? Fake news?
Chiron takes wounding and uses it to propel itself higher, to higher levels of consciousness. To grow beyond the pain, to learn from it, to heal and to help others with it (like, spreading democracy around the world, cough cough). But, this can’t possibly go on forever. Mercury and Pluto aren’t being fair. Mercury and Pluto (Patriotism, excessive Capitalism) are blown way out of proportion and they keep shitting on Chiron. Chiron needs a break.
And when transit Chiron comes back around into Aries, Chiron remembers itself. It is the wounded warrior that America wants to forget but can’t.
Quick Side Note:
Not only is transit Chiron back in Aries but America’s progressed Chiron is also back in Aries, at 17 degrees, well within orb, applying to a conjunction with natal Chiron. Also, the USA progressed Moon is right at 24 Capricorn, opposing Mercury and within orb of Pluto, all of which seems very fitting. The T-square is being activated in a MAJOR way.
We need to deal with this now.
Back to the inception chart:
Saturn & Karma
The Sibly chart of the USA has Saturn in Libra right up at the top, in the 10th house. This is highly significant. This lends to a certain karmic bond over the land itself, lording over everything. It reminds me of Native Americans living on this land for thousands of years and then European settlers coming over and stealing all of that away from them.
However, don’t most countries have some sort of story like this?
Perhaps it’s because America is such an experiment, a “new world,” with its history happening relatively recently, that we are all still stung by this story of our country being ripped away from its original inhabitants, casting them aside like dead cattle and basically ignoring them.
Now would be a good time to mention that America’s Cancer Sun is in a tight, applying square to Saturn in Libra. This could be its own post entirely but, basically, it re-asserts that this country’s path is karmic, marked by the need to strengthen its heart center after so much pain.
Native Americans and Our Karma
There are many glorified stories about Native Americans, that they were a peaceful, spiritual people. I’m sure that’s true on some level but they definitely went to war with one another (the different tribes). I mean, they are human, amiright?
One thing I think it’s safe to say is that they worshipped the land that we all now call home and they lived amongst the natural rhythms of Mother Nature. They were connected to the land. Their gods and goddesses were animals. Spirit animals.
I make this point because I feel like ripping one’s land, which was basically God to them, away, brutally and coldly, then starting a new country entirely without any regard whatsoever of the past – that shit is going to leave a pretty deep karmic footprint.
Imagine America as a child and the parents are the Natives and the Settlers, with all that anger, violence, and fear. Don’t you think that child would have some karma to work through? The holidays would certainly be precarious at best and, lo and behold – in America, they are.
That many Native Americans still carry the pain of this great injustice to this day is a testament to the strength of it.
Do you feel it, too? Because I do.
Slavery
If that wasn’t enough, add in the exploitation and gross mistreatment of human beings in order to gain power and status (Pluto 2nd), while simultaneously denying them their god-given humanity, and all the violence and horror that resulted, while the country’s own founding documents hypocritically state that all men are created equal?
The karmic footprint of America is breathtakingly unbelievable.
I am not trying to bash my country. This is my home. My Cancer Moon is directly on top of America’s Sun – I love this country and I believe in it. And let us not forget that America’s Moon is in Aquarius. The belief that Liberty and Justice for all is very real but it, so far, has only been an ideal that we strive towards.
The thing about karma, however, is that it seems impossible to fight. It seems too hard. But, you must understand that human willpower is one of the most powerful forces in the universe. And collective willpower is even stronger. Karmic wounding needs to be transformed, and human willpower can do it. But willpower alone does little. There needs to be action, and first we need to know where to start.
Chiron in the 4th House
Part of the 4th house is what is passed down to us from our ancestors. Any planets there, or the planet ruling the house and its aspects, will have to do with our familial timeline, energetically. It’s where we come from. The 4th house is also very private and we don’t see it right away in people. We have to dig to get there, whether in others or in ourselves. We have to consciously pull our 4th house out to work through it.
So, it’s no surprise to me that America has Chiron in the 4th. It’s symbolic of a wound that we carry as Americans, as a country. The inception of America includes a deep psychic wound that was carried over from the past. Chiron in the 4th speaks to feeling like one does not belong to a “family unit” or a tribe. It’s also the house of the subconscious, one of the water houses, running deep and forever. This wound is subconscious, driving the car whether we know it or not. It is in the Moon’s house and it is often painful to go there.
America’s Chiron is opposite Saturn in Libra in the 10th house. Yes, it’s a little wide but it is strong and very symbolic. It’s like America was “born” from karmic pain. Saturn in the 10th signifies a karmically charged destiny. Opposing Chiron says to me that, in order to fulfill this destiny, we keep shoving the wound down, pretending we can’t do both. Plus, it’s caught up in a T-square – almost a full Cardinal Cross, though a sloppy one – with Pluto and an 8th house Mercury in Cancer. It’s an energetic snag and, being collective, it is quite a snag.
In a person, in a natal chart, oppositions often become configurations of strength. The strength comes because the person has learned, through a lot of challenge and pain, how to successfully balance the energies. America is off balance. We need to address our wound collectively as soon as possible.
Right now, and really, ever since Pluto entered Capricorn and Chiron entered Aries, our wound is majorly activated. We are currently grieving in America, collectively, the injustices of police violence against people of color, particularly of black people. It’s too many to count but we all know this shit goes much deeper than that.
Healing the Wound
There can be a way out of this. We can heal America.
Collective grieving, in the form of prayer, tears, sadness, shame, anger, repulsion and the expression of every other emotion that goes along with grief, is definitely a good and necessary place to start the process of healing our country’s wound.
But we need to do more.
We need to use the Ghost Point (photo above), which falls in Libra for America, to help guide our way out of it. It’s part of our karma to do so, being as Saturn is right there. The Ghost Point would be widely conjunct Saturn in Libra, after all. We need the government (Saturn) to stand with us in this fight.
Libra is about working together, plain and simple. Saturn is exalted here for a reason. Libra is cardinal energy – it needs to make things happen. And, being ruled by Venus, it focuses on other people, so it needs to make things happen with other people.
Libra is symbolized by the Scales of Justice. Justice can only be served when there is compassion. Libra is the sign of putting compassion to work. Can this get fucked up sometimes? Yes, with the people-pleasing and brushing off serious problems because they’re too complicated and heavy. Air signs don’t jive well with too much weight. Aquarius is the best to deal with heaviness, but even tha sign can only do it for so long before it needs to get the heck out of there.
Compassion and working together is where we start.
Most people think Libra is the sign of balance but it is actually the sign that requires balance. It requires consistent and conscious balance and compromise, otherwise Libra can get out of whack. This is how we sustain justice in America. Balancing energies, compromising, talking out issues, coming together – these all require proactive work. Saturn.
The thing about Libra energy that bugs me is that it doesn’t particularly like to deal with its dark side. Is every Libra this way? No. For the 100th time, we are all more than just one of our placements. In general, Libra would rather talk about something else than its wounding or the wounding of others that it hasn’t met. But, Libra needs to deal with this right now.
When we are conscious of our wounds and we are conscious about working them out, magic can happen.
Do I have all the answers? I hope not. But astrology can help us understand and realize that, yeah, we have a shit ton of problems, but the solution is always inherent in the problem, and if we don’t address it, then what? What happens if we keep pushing this from generation to generation?
We should have a national day of mourning over these issues and it should be made a holiday. We should honor the past, consciously. We should pay reparations, giving federal money to Native American and black communities to help build them up. Some people may think that that’s a ridiculous idea, but money carries a lot of psychic energy. Using that energy to help heal the past would be wise. Marianne Williamson had it right about reparations.
Like she said, and I’m paraphrasing: if somebody owes you money and does not pay you back, you remember that shit.
Edit on June 10, 2020: I just listened to this Astrology Hub podcast “Locking Arms in Uncertain Times” about race. They don’t go into any astrology but it’s just a wonderful conversation and I feel blessed for tuning in. Listen here or find it anywhere you listen to podcasts. Peace!
Did you like this article? Read my thoughts about how the Pluto in Sagittarius generation is going to change America forever.