| Star
Wisdom News |
November-December
Issue 2003 |
America,
America Where Art Thou?
William Bento
As we move into the new year and face the impending
presidential race for the high seat at the White House,
it is reasonable for us to reflect not only on the candidates
but upon the foundations that set the American nation
into being. Our inquiry need not remain a political
history but can focus on the esoteric and spiritual
dimensions. In the light of revealing the starry background
on the day of Declaration of Independence and the institution
of the Constitution of the United States of America
we may read the intentions set for the nation, its distinct
hopes and wishes, its specific role in the flow of world
history, and its particular challenges as it unfolds
and expands into world affairs.
The Declaration of Independence can be regarded as a
long overdue and anticipated conception. Had the American
Revolution been aborted or the war not won, there would
be no United States of America as we know it. As in
all conceptions there is at work the protective guidance
of the Higher Beings (Angels, Archangels, and Archai)
with all their intentions that serve a divine evolutionary
process upon Earth. This entails meeting a destiny and
karma. It is therefore justified to ask the question,
“What was intended to be the destiny and karma
of America?” How can we reconcile the current
state of crisis in America with the aims of the spiritual
world? Yet, before we attempt to answer these questions
we must realize that the conception chart of the USA
is really about the Folk Soul, the people’s voice
and not necessarily the government. The government does
not come into existence until the Constitution is enacted.
It is this moment that signifies the birth of a nation
under a government. Hence we will have to consider the
interface between the starry configurations of the Declaration
of Independence: July 4, 1776 and the Constitution of
the USA: March 4, 1789. The latter date is arrived at
via the acknowledgement that the Federal Government
was not operative until the first day of the first session
of the newly elected Congress was held. (See Rudhyar,
D. The Astrology of America’s Destiny, 1974)
In order to tap into the historical esoteric roots of
America it is important to cite the influences of the
Knight Templars, who were banned by the French monarchy
from existence in the 14th century, yet were allowed
to be reformed in Portugal as the Order of Christ. Their
existence persisted into the late 16th century. One
of its members was Christopher Columbus’ father-in-law.
Some speculate that Columbus himself was a member of
the Order of Christ and through this affliation he was
able to receive maps of the New World once used by the
Knight Templars to voyage into the land of the setting
Sun and harvest its precious gold. Another significant
historical note is that Columbus was linked to a political
group that supported the ideas of Dante, an alleged
Grand Master of the Order of the Rosy Cross. Along with
the sponsorship of the Queen of Spain, Columbus was
also given supportive means for his voyage by Leonardo
da Vinci and Lorenzo de Medici, both initiates of the
famed Florentine Platonic Academy that was responsible
for the cultural Renaissance. Columbus is a complex
historical figure. He exemplified religious peity and
prejudicial racism. Although he was reported to have
visions and felt driven to discover the New Jerusalem
as a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy, he was unable
to alter his own appalling attitude and treatment of
the indigeneous Native American Indians. This unfortunately
obscures historians to see how a deeper spiritual impulse
may have been working through him.
Michael Howard’s The Occult Conspiracy, 1989 refers
to another key individual in the esoteric background
of America. He is Sir Francis Bacon, son of Queen Elizabeth
I and the Earl of Leicester, member of the Order of
the Helmut (an order deidicated to the Greek goddess
of wisdom, Pallas Athene), and a scholar of Hermeticism,
Gnosticism, Cabbala and neo-Platonic philosophy, not
to mention one of the most formidable philosophers of
natural science. It was his influence that stood behind
the development of the secret societies in England,
such as the Royal Society founded by the Order of the
Rosy Cross. It was also Bacon who gave rise to the use
of such Masonic symbols including the compass and the
square, the two pillars of Solomon’s temple and
the blazing triangle and the eye of God. As a Utopian
he envisioned an enlightened religion that would reunite
itself with universal esoteric principles, an interdisciplinary
form of education, and a science capable of technologies
that would resurrect the ideals of magic. He wrote of
this vision in his magnum opus novel, The New Atlantis
which was published in 1627. In it he refers to America
as the New Atlantis. Behind the sheer magnitude of Bacon’s
novel lived his intentions to oppose the Spanish from
colonizing the Americas. He feared that the Spanish
would only institute a regressive form of Catholicism
and perpetuate the Inquistion, factors not keeping with
his progressive vision for the New World.
Much has been written about how 55 of the 56 signers
of the Declaration of Independence were Freemasons dedicated
to the ideals of founding a nation on the basis of esoteric
Christian virtues. It offers us a serious confirmation
to the esoteric background mentioned above. However,
I would like to add a footnote to the influence of Sir
Francis Bacon upon our American history. It is derived
from the spiritual karmic research into reincarnation
by Rudolf Steiner.
In a lecture given in Torquay, England on August 14,
1924 Steiner reveals Sir Francis Bacon’s former
incarnations---one being Haroun al Raschid. “He
was a splendour-loving but a the same time a highly
gifted organizer and he gathered at his Court the most
learned men of his day, men who although they were no
longer working as Initiates, still preserved and cultivated
in a living way much of the ancient wisdom of the Mysteries.”
This Court, Steiner elsewhere explains, is the Academy
of Gondishapur once located outside of Baghdad, Iraq.
It flourished from the 6th to the 9th centuries AD.,
following the 529 Justian I orders from Istanbul, Turkey
to close down the Platonic Academy in Athens, Greece.
(See Schoeffler, H. The Academy of Gondishapur, 1995)
Haroun al Raschid lived with the intention to school
an intelligence far beyond its time, in such a way as
to harness the forces of even sub-nature. His hope was
that the firm rootedness in Mohammedanism would spread
throuhout the ages into all the world. In his subsequent
incarnation as Bacon he openly formed an opposition
to Aristotelianism and infused Christianity with an
Arabic thinking. Steiner suggest that it his influence
that set the natural sciences into a pure abstract pursuit
of developing a technology based on control, even at
the expense of the organic wholeness of Natura herself.
He describes Baconism as being a form of Anti-Michaelic
forces aligned with adversary powers.
When we consider this influence working in the background
of America and review the USA’s present situation
in Iraq, gestures of karmic consequences seem to be
self-evident. Much could be said, speculated and forecast
around the karmic gestures of the USA and Iraq. It is
certainly a world karmic mystery drama that extends
beyond mere religious, political and economic concerns.
Although these concerns are crucial factors in assessing
the current situation, I would like to shift our perception
into the spiritual arena of world evolution and the
role America is playing despite all appearances. To
do this I will rely on reading the phenomenal script
of the starry heavens as it presented itself on July
4, 1776, and March 4, 1789, as well as the current transits
to both moments.
My research into the exact time of the conception of
the American Folk Soul resonates and confirms Dane Rudhyar’s
time of July 4, 1776 at 5:13:55 pm EST in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. The Sun was in the 22nd degree of the
sidereal sign of Gemini, the Moon in the 6th degree
of the sidereal sign of Aquarius, and the rising sign
was in the 22nd degree of sidereal Scorpio. If we assign
the Sun to the fundamental purpose and intentional direction
of the American Folk Soul, then the sign of Gemini would
define the will to develop an intelligence congruent
with the worldview of mathematism or natural science.
(See Steiner, R. Human and Cosmic Thought, 1914) It
is not without significance that the spiritual elder
involved in the Declaration of Independence event, Benjamin
Franklin, was not only a statesman but an innovator
of many scientific technologies. The most obvious of
his legacies being the discovery of electricity! The
diversity of interests, love for the written, printed
and oral word, the intelligent charm, business acumen
and wit of Benjamin Franklin are all apt attributes
of the American Folk Soul’s will to express itself.
With the Moon being a reflection of the feelings of
the people we can state the Aquarius Moon indicates
a progressive and visionary tone to the American Folk
Soul. A quality of tolerance for all religious creeds
and ethnic groups was quite unique to the early American
settlers. In them lived the ideal of the universal individual.
Such an individual would have his or her feelings tempered
by the higher social aims of brotherhood. The longing
for freedom, so eloquently expressed by Thomas Jefferson’s
writing of the Declaration of Independence, are constantly
at the heart of the American Folk Soul’s feeling
life. The ascendant in Scorpio speaks to the striving
sense of identity within the American Folk Soul. When
the Scorpion is emphasized social transformation is
spared no expense, including the cost of human blood.
It is the traditional sign of death, rebirth and regeneration.
The key to understanding the sign of Scorpio is to evaluate
its orientation. Its ascent is portrayed as the Eagle,
whereas its destructive descent is imaged by the Scorpion.
The design of the Great Seal has in its obverse side
the bald-headed American Eagle holding in its talons
a bundle of arrows and an olive branch.This symbolically
refers to the dynamic of war and peace which seems to
characterize this relatively young nation. In a deeper
way it also brings up the twin issue of good and evil.
In its mouth the eagle holds a scroll with the words
E Pluribus unum written on it. It reveals the orientation
that the American strives for, “Out of the many,
one”. This phrase has also been used by the Rosicrucians
to refer to the ancient wisdom that all Gods are in
fact one God.
Although not visible to the naked, eye the planet Uranus
was setting at the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Mundane astrology considers planets at the angles as
significant factors in the shaping of the event under
consideration. How much more apropos could this be?
Does not the USA embody the dream of the Enlightenment
Age? Does it not correlate to the discovery of electricity
in the elemental realm, the harnessing of light…a
feat once attributed only to Gods? And does it not usher
the ideal of freedom into the human sphere? Not only
is Uranus potentized by its setting position it is intensified
by being in alignment with one of the brightest fixed
stars, i.e. Aldebaran, the eye of the Bull. In this
highlighted position of Uranus, Greek word for Heaven,
we can see the relevancy of the American flag. The stars
and stripes signifying the heavenly allegiance imprinted
into the blood as a new form of Folk, a new type of
nationality affliation.
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the
Republic for which it stands, one
nation, under God, indivisible, with
liberty and justice for all.”
The universal individual idealized by the American forefathers
was conceived as a being united under God into a communal
Self. This notion has its origin in the spiritual views
of the Freemasons. It designated the next stage of development
beyond the ego’s singular sense of Self. In the
East it is referred to as Manas nature, denoting the
Spirit Self or Higher Self. In esoteric star wisdom
this development is associated with the planet Uranus.
There would be no exaggeration to say that the American
Founding Fathers were able to receive the cosmic evolutionary
impulses of Uranus. Their very reference to God seemed
to echo the elevated sense of Uranus. They connected
God with the human capacities of reason and conscience.
The worldview of the sidereal sign of Taurus addresses
Rationalism, a body of knowledge that has as its working
principle the Hermetic axiom, i.e. “As above,
so below.” It’s genesis historical lies
in the third Post-Atlantean Age (Egyptian/Chaldean/Babylonian
Epochs) when the vernal point was in the sign of the
Bull. Knowing this fact, it will come as no surprise
to see how often the American forefathers utilized the
ideas and symbols from that age. Take the reverse image
of the Great Seal for example: a pyramid with 13 tiers
and the “Eye of God” crowning it, above
it the words Annuti Coeptis, translated as “He
favours our undertaking”, and below the pryamid
a scroll with the words Novus Ordo Seclorum meaning
the”New Order of the Ages”. Rudolf Steiner
frequently spoke of how the third Post-Atlantean Age
would be recapitulated and transformed in the present
fifth Post-Atlantean Age. In that respect America is
the process of extending what Europa began in this age
of the Fishes. Liberally, we could say expanding upon
the fundamental tenets of Christianity into a universal
sense of spirituality that recognizes the centrality
of the Cosmic Christ in world evolution.
I will now make brief remarks about the rest of the
July 4, 1776 starry configuration so as to convey some
of the inner gestures of the American Folk Soul. When
examining the influence of Folk Souls it is important
to be reminded that we ae speaking about the realm ofthe
Archangels, a planetary sphere designated to be Mercury.
In this USA chart Mercury is found in the sidereal sign
of Cancer. It conveys a sense of the collective American
mind. By sign it is related to the worldview of Materialsm.
Whether it is about a drive of consumerism or a need
to procure wealth this inclinaton has played a central
role in America. The element of covert and compulsive/obsessive
involvements in this area is shown in the opposition
of Mercury to the planet Pluto in Capricorn. There is
an element of decision making that will tend to be made
behind the scenes and for a greater sense of control
and power. The higher aspect to this configuration can
be found in the redemptive attribute of Pluto. In the
sign of Capricorn there is the disposition to assign
power to higher Spiritual beings, to the Providence.
In this light, the possibility of engendering an attitude
of being guardians and servants of the Earth’s
natural resources becomes more likely; yet it remains
merely an ideal until the fears that drive the current
American economy are dissolved by a more enlightened
view.
Turning attention to Venus we find it conjoined with
Jupiter in the sidereal sign of Gemini. The intimate
values and longings of the American Folk Soul are bound
up with the spirit for a culture of education, for a
community of the “Town Hall Meetings”, wherein
information flows freely, ideas are heatedly debated
and everyone sees the other as his brother or sister
in an experiment of democracy. There is the innate talent
for creating social life out of the arts, at times,
even a lifestyle of indulgence into the many forms of
entertainment . Yet its more noble striving is part
of a royal art, the social art of inclusion and creativity.
Mars is found setting in the sidereal sign of Taurus
conjunct the cluster of seven stars known as the Pleiades.
It is in the traditional sector (house system) designated
as the “other”. Think of how Mars, planet
of war and aggression, is situated to reflect the moment.
The American Revolution and right to bear arms against
the British and any other sovereign state that threathens
its security are all indicators of Mars’ position.
It can also been seen as an aggressor for reasons of
obtaining resources considered essential for its on-going
bustling economy. Mars needs to be tempered by introducing
the assertion of inner work as well as outer work. Translated
into practical terms this may suggest the need to act
out of values integral to the aims of the Declaration
of Independence. As it openly and publicly declared
the reasons which impelled the colonists to separate
from Great Britian, we Americans of the 21st century
need to voice our reasons and our conscience to those
events that now separate us from our foundations.
Rising to the zenith of the chart was the planet Neptune
in the first degree of Virgo, the sidereal sign of the
illustrious Virgin, the Being of Natura. Here are the
high aspirations of forming a government on the basis
of spirituality. The deep reference to the spirit of
God as embodied in nature is voiced in documents of
our forefathers over and over again. Thomas Jefferson
wrote in the Declaration of Independence, “We
acknowledge that our children are born free; that that
freedom is a gift of nature, and not of him who begot
them…Every man, and every body of men on earth,
possess the right of self-government. They receive it
with their being from the hand of nature. Individuals
exercise it by their single will; collection of men
by that of their majority; for the law of the majority
is the natural law of every society of men.” It
is this conviction that echoes the utopian ideals of
Sir Francis Bacon for America. However, utopia is not
an easy state to acheive nor a path free from illusions.
The American Folk Soul wrestles with this dilemma constantly.
It is particularly striking to realize that Neptune
is squared (90-dgree angle, classically denoting conflict
or stress) Mars. The public aspirations of the American
Folk Soul and its activities with other nations may
be incongruent and often a cause for disillusionment.
Lastly, let me cite the position of Saturn, the planet
that defines the sense of order, governance, and world
karmic responsibilities. Saturn is also found in the
sidereal sign of Virgo. It lies in a sector (11th house)
that is connected to social reformation, building alliances
and receiving the affection of others. The same set
of ancient wisdom principles that gave the Declaration
of Independence its distinct legacy has continued to
be the light of hope throughout the world. The American
experiment to be self-governed, to reform monarchies,
invite others of like-mind to join the venture, and
to be admired for its spiritual and political rights
may continue on, but it is certainly questioned today.
The questions may well be the active influence of the
square aspect between Saturn and the Sun. This aspect
forecast a struggle between the overall uniting aims
of the mission of America and what eventually becomes
the form of government as reflected in the Constitution.
(Next installment will focus on the March 4, 1789 Constitution
of the United States of America configuration.)
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