Norman Rockwell “The Problem We All Live With”

January 8 - March 15, 2021

In the birth chart of the United States, and in the birth charts of several of its founding fathers and leaders, Aquarius plays a prominent role. Written into the Declaration of Independence itself is a quintessentially Aquarian ideal: that all men are created equal, and are entitled, inherently, to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. A glaring omission from its lines, however, is another truth: that this radical and inspiring sentiment applied only to a white, male, aristocratic minority, and ignored the enslavement, genocide and disenfranchisement of the rest of the population. It also contains a paradox: that, as progressive as the American experiment claims to be, America (its government especially) is frustratingly slow to embrace change. 

Aquarius is a fixed air sign; it sees ideas writ large and then translates them into ideals. But, once convinced of its truth, it can be hard for it to see outside its own vision. Such is the perplexing energy of a sign ruled by both the rebel (Uranus) and the loyalist (Saturn). We will be hearing a lot about Aquarius, and about both its rulers, this year, as they are major players in the drama of the skies for the foreseeable future. Jupiter and Saturn have already entered the sign via the Great Conjunction on the solstice. By February, there will be six planets transiting through (seven if you count the Moon, and eight if you include asteroid Pallas Athena). Today, Mercury makes its entrance.

Mercury in Aquarius can be a networker and a social connector; it can be forward-thinking and inventive; it can also be an instigator, a fomenter, and a revolutionary. The messenger planet, hovering in the ether, looks down at the world from the future. It surveys the circuitry of life from its bird’s eye view in the proverbial Cloud. As Mercury makes its way though our individual charts, it may activate our social networks, both in person and online; it may spark insights; or the impetus to speak our truth, whatever the cost. As it travels though the US’s 3rd house, passing over our karmic South Node and our Moon (symbol of the people), Mercury will likely stir up talk of reform, innovation, as well as insurrection. Conversations, and diatribes, on the personal, local and national level will, I expect, center around topics of equality, equity and the social contract. How should freedom operate within a collective, and how far do we believe our ethos of individualism should extend? A retrograde for much of February will prolong our time with these themes. 

George Washington, icon of American history, undoubtedly possessed the contradictions of character mentioned above and shared by his fellow founding fathers. But his natal Mercury in Aquarius did give him a brilliant mind, and insight into the pitfalls of government, which he enumerated clearly in his Farewell Address, and which we have continued to blatantly disregard ever since, for all our lionizing of the man. His parting words were an endorsement for unity and Union, as well as a warning against the dangers of divisive sectionalism, entrenched political factions, and the two-party system. His words ring true throughout, more than two centuries later, but this part I find especially prescient: “the alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension…is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation on the ruins of public liberty.” After the treasonous mob mania of Wednesday—the outcome of the corrupt, inept sham of the Trump presidency—Washington is surely rolling over in his grave. Those of us who are alive during this time, however, have an opportunity to course correct, to try and mend the rips in the fabric of our nation, and to re-envision a more effective system of government. In other words, it’s back to the drawing board for us and our declarations: this Aquarian time is asking, what do democracy and independence mean anymore, and what are the true American ideals?