USA horoscope - Declaration of Independence

[Jim Eshelman]

In another thread, i was asked what I regard as the most effective horoscope for the USA. I should mention that there are other charts that seem to carry their own power - the constitution chart for speaking to the formulation of the government, the original declaration of war on Britain for military action, etc. But for a representation of the United States of America, her people, her essence, and the defining political and cultiural events across the whole of her history, the Declaration of Independence truly appears to be the cutting of the unbillicus, and the chart below has proven itself repeatedly as the easy "best of the bunch" both for describing the USA and for major events.



Here is the new Sidereal Solar Return (SSR) for this chart. I should add, though, that - as attractive as this chart seems in many ways - solar and lunar returns don't have a very persuasive record with any national charts (US and otherwise) that I've seen - certainly not as good as for people.

[Jim Eshelman]

Jim, I just finished reading ‘Astrology And The United States: The National Horoscope Of The USA’. I noticed Bradley was using the tropical zodiac in 1951. When did he convert to the SZ? I think Fagan converted to the SZ in 1944? Did Bradley and Fagan personally meet or did they just know each other through there writings in American Astrology? Any additional historical info on Bradley would be appreciated.
Thanks

[Jim Eshelman]

Bradley was essentially converted years before this. But he worked for Llewellyn George and did most of his writing in the Tropical zodiac. (For that matter, until his death he did most of his writing in TZ because he was writing much of American Astrology every month under various pen names and in the Tropical.)

I tend to think that the reason this particular book was written under a pen name was that it was decided, for commercial and "likely to reach an audience" reasons, to put the book out in TZ, so he used another name.

[Jim Eshelman]

Jim, my SolarFire program, under the Preferences button, then under the Prog/Dirns button is set for the progression of angles for the NQ1 & SQ1. What changes do I need to make in the Preferences/Prog/Dirns category in order to progress the angles with Bradley’s method for USA chart?

My SolarFire is version 5.0. Years ago, Matthew sent me files to handle Paran recognition and bodily in-- mundo placement of planets on the angles. Do I need to up-grade for any other important functions pertaining to Sidereal Astrology?
Thanks

[Jim Eshelman]

Bradley was essentially converted years before this. But he worked for Llewellyn George and did most of his writing in the Tropical zodiac. (For that matter, until his death he did most of his writing in TZ because he was writing much of American Astrology every month under various pen names and in the Tropical.)

I tend to think that the reason this particular book was written under a pen name was that it was decided, for commercial and "likely to reach an audience" reasons, to put the book out in TZ, so he used another name.

Hi Jim,
I found this post of yours recently and was quite surprised. Say it ain't so! Can you tell me which pen names he used? I noted that Bradley still used the tropical Aries ingress for his annual forecast until 1957, when he switched to the sidereal ingresses. I was wondering if the outer planet transit program that ACS did with your text uses tropical or sidereal positions. If you have read my astro notes on my US History website you will see that I also find tropical transits to work very well at times.
Regards,
Wayne

PS Here is some relevant research on the adoption of the Declaration: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/US_histor ... essage/218
According to the best historical info, the vote had to be before noon, most likely before 11 am.

[Jim Eshelman]

Can you tell me which pen names he used?

Tons. (Well, dozens.) I never kept a list. He wrote a significant percentage (majority?) of American Astrology standard content. For this book in question, the pen name was Lewis Howard.

I noted that Bradley still used the tropical Aries ingress for his annual forecast until 1957

The Vernal Equinox chart is a valid chart in its own right - it's an astronomical event. I still regard them as valid. But he particularly used them until after discovering and vetting the Sidereal Cardinal ingresses which was... let's see... 1956 IIRC?

I was wondering if the outer planet transit program that ACS did with your text uses tropical or sidereal positions.

Whatever the customer orders. As with all other products, the default is Tropical.

According to the best historical info, the vote had to be before noon, most likely before 11 am.

Yes, but the question has always been: When did the first signature go on it?

[Jim Eshelman]

According to the best historical info, the vote had to be before noon, most likely before 11 am.

Yes, but the question has always been: When did the first signature go on it?

A tough question. Of course you mean Hancock's and Thomson's signatures on July 4. Some historians question whether the original draft was signed at all. Here is a note from the Wikipedia article on the DOI: "If a document was actually signed on July 4, it would have had just two signatures—John Hancock, president of Congress, and secretary Charles Thomson—because the first published version of the Declaration, the widely distributed Dunlap broadside, was issued over their typeset names. Hancock and Thomson may have signed the handwritten version that was sent to the printer, although historian Julian P. Boyd considered this to be unlikely and unnecessary, because the printer may have simply been told to print Hancock's and Thomson's names on the broadside." The full article is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Sta ... dependence

I have not seen any better astrological evidence than what I find for the 10:04 am EST time that I have been using since the early 1980's. I have had the Howard/Bradley booklet in my library since then, and while the progressions are quite impressive on occasion, the accumulated evidence for the earlier time is still more convincing to me. Hits withing a few minutes of arc on transits and progressions are not uncommon. I can list them all here, but since most are tropical positions, I'm wondering if that would be appropriate on your Solunars board. I suppose the fact that Bradley apparently used tropical postions extensively in his writings might make this allowable, but it's your call. Incidentally, it was Brigadier Firebrace who first calculated a chart for this approximate time. He was going to test John B Early's time of 10:04 pm from the AFA's Astrological Americana which he had based on his reading of an entry in an old almanac that quoted Sibley's time of 10:10 pm (!), but Firebrace (or someone) misunderstood it as LMT instead of LAT, and he understandably did his charts for am and not pm. See Spica, Oct 1962, page 6. He was not impressed with the chart for this time, but I certainly am.
Regards,
Wayne

[Jim Eshelman]

Can you tell me which pen names he used?

Tons. (Well, dozens.) I never kept a list. He wrote a significant percentage (majority?) of American Astrology standard content. For this book in question, the pen name was Lewis Howard.

According to an email from Ken Irving (posted with his permission), his two most used pen names were, "H. E. Palms and E. C. Dailey, though I'm not quite sure of the spelling of the last. His pen names often involved a pun. H. E. Palms means "itchy palms," as he did the column in question because he needed the money. That was used on "Moon Phases and Transits," which was tropical. The second one was used mainly for political and economic topics. His thought there was that when you try to predict such things you end up having to eat crow daily. Another, used on the aspectarian (which was then calculated by hand from various sources), was Rex Kiernan. I'm not sure there was a pun involved there, and it may have been either entirely made up or it might have had family connections, which was the case with Garth Allen. Allen was of course his middle name, and I have a vague recollection of being told that the Garth came from a favorite uncle or cousin.
There may be one or two more that I should remember, but I think he used these the most. And there may be others I don't even know about, since I got the impression (mostly from many talks with Joanne Stonnell over the years I worked with her) that he did quite a bit of freelancing for all kinds of magazines, astrological and otherwise."

As an amateur historian/archivist, I find this info fascinating. Again, as I posted elsewhere, it is a shame that most of his astrological research files have apparently been lost.
Regards,
Wayne

PS In going through my notes, I find that a "C. E. Daley" wrote a sidereal article about the presidential election for the American Astrology Digest for 1956.

[Jim Eshelman]

Getting back to the original topic here...Since astromaps aren't a tropical or sidereal technique, I thought I'd point out a few interesting connections on the 10:04 am EST chart mentioned in some of my other posts. This time puts the Moon on the Descendant in Mexico City, and on the IC in Madrid. How to interpret this? If you know our history, you might be thinking, "War?" Yes, in fact we have gone to war with both countries--Mexico in 1846 and Spain in 1898. I did not initially think of the Moon as war oriented, but what about tribal loyalty, patriotism (or matriatism), the hardships of being away from home like a camper or backpacker (only worse), and the Moon's association with hunting? Today of course there are Taco Bells and Mexican/Spanish restaurants in most major cities in the US, but there is also considerable tension revolving around ethnic identities and languages. Mexican immigrant labor is a hot topic, and many are domestics and farm workers, just what you'd expect with the Moon. (Also many other occupations, of course, like construction workers, which would seem more solar than lunar to me at first glance.) I think what we can say is that from our inception as a nation, we have been destined to have a symbiotic relationship with our Catholic/hispanic neighbors and the broader hispanic world. Turn on your television or radio and count the number of Spanish language stations, especially in the southwestern US. (I might also mention that at this period the major coinage in the American colonies (and elsewhere) was the Spanish silver Real, and the metal associated with the Moon is silver.) This all makes pretty compelling evidence for the 10:04 time, in my mind.

Another interesting connection is that Uranus is on the meridian just east of Havana, and in fact is at the zenith near...oh, the Bay of Pigs! Our attempts to liberate Cuba, first from Spain and later from Castro, seem exactly indicated here. If this seems itriguing to you, take a look at the maps using your own software and let us know if you find other likely confirmations. And then tell us how it works!
Regards,
Wayne

PS Astromaps like those we use today were pioneered by Donald Bradley in the 1950's and Gary Duncan (Neil Block) in the 1960's. Jim Lewis popularized the technique in the 1970's and 80's, and now most thorough astrologers consider astromapping to be one of the best tools yet devised. I concur.

Another post on this chart: http://solunars.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=37
Historical info with some astrology notes: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/US_history_events/