Historians often say that events don’t repeat, but people do.
I’ve been thinking of that often as we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The Mars-Uranus conjunction in Gemini that happened in 1776 will repeat on July 4.
As I think of people from that era, John Quincy Adams, who was a young child in 1776, comes to mind. The chart of the United States has a Cancer Sun and Adams was born under a Cancer Sun.
Jung said that a child’s greatest burden is the unlived life of their parents; Adams’ life reflects that more dramatically than most. Both his parents placed the weight of the nation on his shoulder. His father John Adams, who served as president, said in a letter to his son, “If you do not rise to the head not only of your Profession but of your Country it will be owing to your own Laziness, Slovenliness and Obstinancy” (p. 49, Founding Son). That enormous pressure triggered bouts of severe depression and dejection throughout his life.
Adams was eventually elected president but served just one term. Consumed by despair after losing the presidency, he felt he let the country and his late parents down. He could have done the nineteenth-century equivalent of retiring and playing golf every day, but instead, he ran for congress and served for nearly two decades. It’s hard to imagine an ex-president today taking that kind of step down.
Yet, it wasn’t until his presidency was over and he entered the House of Representatives that his true destiny started to break through. As the abolitionist movement grew, Adams fought fiercly to preserve their right to petition. He didn’t fight with arms, but with words and mastery of procedural motions. When his opponents tried to silence him with a gag rule, Adams used an ingenious parliamenteary maneuver to hold the floor and rip the gag from his mouth. This is what a Uranian moment looks like from the inside. Not explosion—declaration. Not force—the right word spoken in the right room at the right time.
Current activity in the sky is returning us to John Quincy Adam’s story. In his chart, Uranus in Gemini is currently forming a square to his ascendant ruler Venus in Virgo. Jung’s daughter, Gret Baumann-Jung, said Jung remarked about how one’s astrology remains in effect even after death: “Shortly before his death, as we talked about horoscopes, my father remarked: ‘The funny thing is that the darned stuff even works after death.'”
His soul’s signature, Venus the ascendant ruler, was hidden away in the 12th house, an isolated place. In astrology, Venus represents the soul’s deepest loves and longings—and Adams’ was kept under lock and key during the first half of his life. Uranus is currently in the 9th house in his chart, associated with moral principle and public advocacy. Adams is long gone, so it’s interesting how Adam’s story of how is now being revisited again thanks to the new popular book about him, Founding Son.
What is the Venus-in-the-12th thing in your own life that a Mars-Uranus transit might be trying to square?
In 1836, Adams knew he was engaged in his final crusade and would not live long enough to see slavery abolished: “This is a cause I am entering at the last stage of my life and with the certainty that I cannot advance in it far; my career must close, leaving the cause at the threshold. To open the way for others is all that I can do. The cause is good and great.”
That way is still open for all of us.
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I explored this further with astrologer Arin Dosch in our July forecast episode — including an I Ching cast that arrived at the same place from a completely different direction.
Interested in an Astrology Consultation?Book a session here.
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In depth,
Anita Ashland
AnitaAshland.com
