US birth chart was determined
by Thomas Jefferson
not the Continental Congress!

US birth chart is universally recognized to represent the moment when the Declaration of Independence was officially put forth. The acrimonious debate begins when the question is debated when that happened. The standard claim is that it was the alleged signing of the official final text. However, it is also universally known to have occurred some time during July 4th 1776.

All official documents of the U.S. government bear the calendar date and a date in terms of the Independence of the United States as of July 4, 1776. The official copy of the Declaration in the Archives bears the very clear headline—In Congress July 4th, 1776. There is no clear historical record of when the discussion and debate by the Continental Congress concluded though it was by all accounts late in the evening.

Generally it is assumed there was a grandiose signing ceremony with bold words by John Hancock and witty remarks by Benjamin Franklin on the seriousness of launching a rebellion against the mightiest superpower of the day. However, it is clear from historical records that the formal signing took place late in August when a properly dignified copy had been prepared for the occasion.

The standard image of the signing ceremony in Independence Hall Philadelphia on July 4, 1776 is just textbook myth, like George Washington admitting to chopping down his father’s cherry tree. The true events that caused the 4th of July to be the passionate emblem of each citizen’s personal independence under the American Experiment in Democracy was all the action and creation of Thomas Jefferson using his knowledge of almanac astrology to create the US birth chart he wanted in the middle of the night before the Continental Congress met the morning of the 4th of July!

Explanation of Marc E. Jones U.S. birth chart
with the birth time about 2 am

Marc E. Jones determined by rectification of the US birth chart in light of historical events that the appropriate birth time for the U.S. was 1:51 AM July 4th 1776. This is in the middle of the night before the famous discussion and debate by the Continental Congress. I have never heard any comment by Marc or anyone else before me of what was going on to produce this U.S. birth chart

I was once told that Thomas Jefferson, an almanac maker familiar with the beliefs of how the US birth chart would determine the character and destiny of the new nation, held up the discussion waiting for the moon to approach the zenith and thus make the common people supreme in the new nation. A great notion, though that would make the US birth chart refer to the 5th of July, 1776.

Rudhyar has a US birth chart with a 5: pm birth time as if the discussion and debate was concluded in time for happy hour. I have been involved in online discussion where a woman astrologer insisted it took until that time to get the men to return from their drinking and whoring in the local taverns to sign the document.

The famous 18th century English astrologer Dr. Sibley used a US birth chart with a 10:10 pm time and thus a local ascendant in the 14th degree of Sagittarius. A wonderful drawing exists of an angel handing George Washington the divinely inspired horoscope for the Declaration of Independence. Rudhyar settles upon a US birth chart with the time of 5:13’55”pm and an ascendant thus 14 Sagittarius. Not clear what happened at such a precise time to express the birth of the new nation, but it is always nice to have an exact chart.

How could anyone judge which time is correct and what therefore is the perfect US birth chart? Using the Sabian Symbols for the degrees of the Sun, Moon, Ascendant of any chart taken together should form a coherent image. This can be a most useful technique to rectify or correct a natal birth time.

Marc E. Jones mentioned in a workshop that when he used this technique with his own clients, he would start reading the Sabian Symbols of the possible degrees for rising sign out loud. Generally the client would listen intently, and when Marc read out the degree most appropriate, the client would suddenly call out---“Not that one, that can’t be me!”

The Sabian Symbol for 14 Cancer is: “A very old man, whose feebleness adds strangely to his dignity, stands alone, facing the darkness in the northeast.” This is the degree of George W. Bush43’s sun. The Sabian Symbol for 28 Aquarius is “The pioneer cottage is prepared for winter's rigors with a tree felled and sawed for fuel and all else in order.” And the all important Rising Sign Sabian Symbol is “A vast panorama of sand and time is unfolding; the pyramids and sphinx in their glory rise before the eye.”

The old man, the log cabin, and the Sphinx don’t fall together for me, but there is a pyramid with an eye in it on the back of the one dollar bill. This would make Bush43 truly the Yankee Doodle Dandy with his sun in the same degree as the sun (traditionally the significator of the chief executive) of the US birth chart. The people and public opinion is traditionally the moon, so they would be the well-prepared log cabin. The nation would be seen by world opinion as the wonders of the ancient world still standing, the pyramids and sphinx.

Marc E. Jones uses the birth time in the middle of the night before, about 2 hours after midnight. This puts the Sun in the 13th degree of Cancer:” A hand, which is held out receptively, is remarkable for the suggestion of character in its prominent thumb.” This makes the President the hitchhiker in chief giving the thumbs up and generally showing an open and powerful hand to the world.

The Moon is in last minutes of the 18th degree of Aquarius in the 10th house near the zenith. This would make the general public and public opinion supreme in the new nation. The Sabian Symbol for this degree is “The masquerade has long been in progress, and laughing young ladies at last have forced the final male to unmask.” This further indicates the power of the feminine in the new nation and the work of public opinion to reveal the truth under all the façade and masks of the formal public display.

Combined with the President with his prominent thumb’s up it seems to indicate more Bill Clinton than George W. Bush as the archetypal American leader. The all important rising sign in the Sabian US birth chart is 4th degree of Gemini:” A series of rooms in a hospitable house, opening one into the other, are decorated gaily with holly and mistletoe.” This would give the U.S. the appearance to the world of a wide open, spacious place filled with Christmas gifts and opportunities.

Together these three Sabian Symbols show a vision for the new nation that would be a welcoming land of opportunity and available gifts overflowing in the eyes of the world, with a friendly public opinion that still demands the absolute truth in the end of everyone in the public eye and a President who could be anyone with the outstretched hand and powerful thumb to manage this welcoming scenario.

Marc E. Jones’ Mundane Perspectives in Astrology sets out the details of relating U.S. history to US birth chart. The positions of the 7 planets known at the time of the Declaration of Independence are quite well arranged. Mars is in the first house giving a sense of initiative to the appearance of the new nation. The moon is in the 10th house making the public most powerful, creating a true democracy unknown in the world since the days of ancient Athens.

The sun is by the third house cusp (the hidden side of the third house) making the chief executive an efficient manager of national details not a powerful king. There is a powerful square between the sun and Saturn which further limits the chief executive and builds character through the need to face limitation and challenges to the personal will of the President.

Uranus is in the first house rising prominently which gives the new nation its spirit of independence and creative genius. Uranus was the first new planet discovered in 1781 while the U.S. was fighting the Revolutionary War to make its Declaration of Independence a fact.
,br>Neptune was the next planet discovered in 1846. It is closely square to Mars (the closest planetary aspect in the chart) which gives a problem with misguided initiatives and a tendency to overuse alcohol and drugs. Neptune is the planet of mysterious attachment. In close square to Mars—Intimate Initiative it gives the U.S. a tendency to base its national actions on the beliefs and moods of the nation rather than objective national interests.

The final planet discovered that is used in modern astrology is Pluto. Its discovery in 1930 is generally related to the upheavals and disruptions of the Depression. Pluto is the planet of ultimate commitment in the sign of Capricorn or firm control.

An entire page on what happens as Pluto changes sign is also accessible from the Campaign 2008 page. Pluto is retrograde in the ninth house which in a mundane (dealing with the world or politics) or national chart represents religion in opposition to Mercury (the closest Pluto aspect in the chart) which represents national propaganda.

The US birth chart given by Marc E. Jones works well, but does not explain what happened at about 2 am as the nearly full Moon could be seen approaching the zenith to give birth to the unique American Democracy. The standard reference source is Carl Becker’s The Declaration of Independence which notes as do all other sources that very little detail was recorded. Thomas Jefferson was tasked to write the first draft and present it to the Continental Congress of the 4th of July,1776.

It is known that he copied out by hand several copies of his final draft and that one of them disappeared. For a long time I wondered what magic ritual Jefferson could have done in the moonlit night to have his draft become the US birth chart. Then I read Becker’s history of the details of the drafting more carefully.

Becker notes,”Contrary to a tradition early established and long held, the Declaration was not signed by the members of Congress on July4. Neither the rough nor the corrected Journal shows any signatures, except that the printed copy in the rough Journal closes with these words, of course in print: ‘Signed by order and in behalf of the Congress, John Hancock, President.”

Since each member of the Continental Congress was to have their own copy to read and make their own notes during the debate upon the final wording, Thomas Jefferson worked with the printer Dunlap during the night before the discussion in Congress. Then the answer hit me. It was not anything magical or occult in any way. The act of printing was publication and publication for any work of literature is its time of birth for horoscope calculation.

The mystery was then solved, the type was set and the first printed copy pulled through the press at 1:52 am in the middle of the night to prepare a small edition of Jefferson’s final draft of the Declaration of Independence to be presented to the Continental Congress for debate when they convened in the morning. This was the birth time which Thomas Jefferson could easily have controlled in his supervision of the typesetting and final proofing to have the first official impression of the run occur as the moon had crossed the zenith.

There is no record of the actual debate, how long it lasted or even how it ended in what way that final point was recognized. In the Official Journal of the Continental Congress there is only a printed copy, prepared in the middle of the night before the debate and the final text as it was prepared and signed in August. The US birth chart was the time of printing of Jefferson’s draft to be submitted to Congress after the fact of the birth of the new United States.

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