Author's Note: Recent incidents of political violence in America are illustrative of the social breakdowns that occur during the Uranus alignments explored in the article below. These are volatile times as America deals with the karmic consequences of the past 84 years and redefines its political and cultural identity over the years to come.

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In part 1, I referred to the troubles of the late 1850s, including the violence of Bleeding Kansas and the economic panic of 1857. These events were part of the social, political, and economic crises that were fueling the movement towards Southern secession and civil war. At that time, Uranus was transiting the last degrees of Taurus, from about 25º-29º. These degrees are significant because they are at a conflictual square alignment (90º) to the Moon in the U.S. natal chart at 27º Aquarius.

Uranus takes about 84 years to transit the zodiac. Step back 84 years from 1857, to 1773, when Uranus was at 25º Taurus and the Boston Tea Party gave a bold middle finger to the British Empire as American rebels deigned to show the King of England that they would not submit to taxation without representation. Although America had not yet declared independence, this "pre-natal square" to the eventual Moon of the eventual United States expresses the same kind of social agitation and breakdown that would, like the late 1850s, lead the nascent country into a major war.

Now jump 84 years after 1857, to 1941, when Japan attacked the naval base at Pearl Harbor and declared war on the United States. America was thrust into another major war, World War II, just as Uranus reached 27º Taurus, again squaring the Moon in the U.S. horoscope.

Nearly 84 years later, in November 2024, we had the second presidential election of Donald Trump, as Uranus again reached 25º Taurus. You see the pattern here. Uranus will retrograde back to 27º Taurus in January of 2026, leaving Taurus for good in April (until it returns in 2102).

Much is made these days about Uranus entering Gemini as a herald of war. But really, it's the transit through late Taurus that stirs up the events that culminate in war by the time Uranus enters Gemini, or soon after. The United States has its natal Uranus at 8º Gemini, with each of the wars mentioned above occurring during America's Uranus Return.

But why would Uranus be linked with American wars? In my view, Uranus represents something existential about America. It is half-rulerUranus's Rulership (or not) of Aquarius of the Moon of America's horoscope, and its nature as emancipation through rebellion aptly describes the karmic impetus for the country's founding. It is not that Uranus inherently wants to make war, rather it shapes and defines the values of the American people, and when those values inevitably come under a significant new threat they must be renewed and reasserted.

It's as if every return of Uranus reawakens the freedom-fighting spirit at the heart of the national consciousness. By the time Uranus first enters Taurus (1850, 1934, 2018) that spirit seems to have been lulled to sleep, but by the time Uranus reaches those sensitive final degrees (1857, 1941, 2025), it is raging from slumber, bursting from the Taurean ground and, like a reverse lightning strike, takes sudden, vengeful flight into the airy sky of cunning Geminian ingenuity. The classically American motto of New Hampshire, "Live free or die", is that burst of Uranian spirit in perfect directness.

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Part 2: Freedom Fighters and Freedom Lovers

The major figures of the Civil War period were tapped in to the Uranian spirit, many of them having significant alignments to Uranus in their natal charts. Starting with Abraham Lincoln, a double Aquarius ruled by Saturn and Uranus, his natal Mercury made a harmonious trine alignment to Uranus, reflecting his verbal brilliance and wit in contrast to his reserved Saturnine countenance. The mature Aquarian is concerned with the plight of the marginalized, and works to enhance their equity. Lincoln used his Mercury-trine-Uranus gifts to write and orate for this cause:

This is a world of compensations; and he who would be no slave, must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, cannot long retain it.

— April 6, 1859; Letter to Henry Pierce

The First Lady, Mary Todd Lincoln, had Uranus conjunct the Sun in Sagittarius, reflecting her qualities of social grace, verbal directness, and impulsive volatility. Ulysses S. Grant, the Union general who led the North to victory, had the Sun at a harmonious trine to Uranus, reflecting his natural brilliance and service to the institutions, military and political, that raised him. His primary adversary, General Robert E. Lee, had the Sun at a conflictual square to Uranus and who, in contrast to Grant, rebelled against the country that made him who he was but was ultimately forced to surrender to.

The list goes on: John Wilkes Booth, Andrew Johnson, Julia Ward Howe, John Brown, Thaddeus Stevens, Jefferson Davis, Alexander Stephens, and Walt Whitman — all had significant planetary alignments to Uranus. But perhaps what is most astonishing is that almost every person alive during the Civil War had Chiron at square to Uranus, due to Chiron's orbit reaching perihelion in the early 1800s, making the square last over 30 years.

The symbolism of Chiron-Uranus is striking: A wound of oppression drives a necessary conflict to breakdown the established order, so it can be remade for social healing. (Much more could be said of the mythological significance here, given the link of Prometheus to astrological Uranus and Chiron's efforts in mythology to free Prometheus from his chains.)

The relevance of Neptune, which entered Aries just as the war started, also shows up. Poet, songwriter, and early suffragette Julia Ward Howe had Venus and Mars in trine alignment to both Uranus and Neptune. She had a personal connection to both planets, and dramatically evoked the religious power and moral righteousness of Neptune in Aries with her famous lyrics to the Battle Hymn of the Republic: He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword; Glory, glory, hallelujah! His truth is marching on.

For the remainder of her life after the war, Julia worked tirelessly for social reform by co-founding and leading organizations that advocated for women's suffrage and education. The humanitarianism of Uranus and the spiritual ideals of Neptune fueled her devotion to her cause. Consequently, her truth marched on, influencing generations of women and men to uplift the rights of women in America.

Arise all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be that of water or of tears!...
Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience...
From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says "disarm, disarm!"
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.

— Mother's Day Proclamation, 1870; Neptune had just conjunct her Mars at 20º Aries

Neptune in Aries does not only refer to militaristic devotion to religious or moral ideals, it also reflects the suffering consequences that come as a result of martyring to those ideals. Consider the poems of Walt Whitman, born just three days after Howe, and who served during the war as a hospital nurse. Through his poetry Whitman is Neptune in Aries, channeling into us the awful tragedy of war with heartrending detail:

Straight and swift to my wounded I go,
Where they lie on the ground after the battle brought in,
Where their priceless blood reddens the grass, the ground...

One turns to me his appealing eyes—poor boy! I never knew you,
Yet I think I could not refuse this moment to die for you, if that would save you...

The neck of the cavalry-man with the bullet through and through I examine,
Hard the breathing rattles, quite glazed already the eye, yet life struggles hard...

From the stump of the arm, the amputated hand,
I undo the clotted lint, remove the slough, wash off the matter and blood...

I sit by the restless all the dark night, some are so young,
Some suffer so much, I recall the experience sweet and sad,
(Many a soldier’s loving arms about this neck have cross’d and rested,
Many a soldier’s kiss dwells on these bearded lips.)

— The Wound Dresser, 1865

That he offers to die for the wounded boy is a powerful sentiment that reveals the dignity of sacrifice blended into Neptune and Aries.

Back to the present day, we are facing intense collective challenges as Uranus enters Gemini and Neptune enters Aries, just as it was in the 1860s. What does the astrology of the Civil War mean for us today? I'll pickup that theme in the next part.

Please share your thoughts...