Can You Say Semiquincentennial?
Musings at America’s 250th “Birthday”
by Janet Booth
In astrology, we’re accustomed to “sesquiquadrate,” the term for square (quadrature) and a half more (sesqui), the relationship of two planets positioned 135º apart in the zodiac (90º + 45º). When we deconstruct the components of the word for a 250th anniversary, it’s a somewhat similar concept but instead of half again (sesqui), it’s half of “semi.” We know “quin” is related to five, as in quintile, the aspect of one-fifth of the zodiac (72º) and quincunx, the aspect of 5/12 (150º). Cent relates to a hundred, like a hundred cents in a dollar. Five hundred years is a quincentennial and half of that is the semiquincentennial, 250 years. So that breaks it down and you can even say it more easily when you grasp the components, but it’s still a mouthful!
Let’s see what’s going on with America’s semiquincentennial astrologically.
As a stickler for details, I have a problem calling July 4, 1776 America’s “birthday.” It’s actually more like the date of our conception. We weren’t really a nation until we had beaten the British and ratified our Constitution. Still, it’s at the heart of our story and many features of the chart for that day ring true with our nation’s character and history.
We were conceived with the “self-evident truth” of equality and fairness (no King, no “man” above the law), in keeping with the Venus-Jupiter conjunction present at the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Venus relates to both equality and fairness and Jupiter is a planet of freedom. Big Jupiter also amplifies whatever it contacts and spreads the effects far and wide. Venus is associated with values and wealth, as well. America is rich in resources and, until recently, generous in sharing those with the world. There is a lot of inequity, though, in how wealth is distributed in our country. (By “distributed,” I don’t mean handed out but rather the spread and disparity between the top and bottom of the economic spectrum.) This has always been the case and was worse in history in kingdoms and feudal states. But America is supposed to be a place of opportunity where a person is free to seek a fortune, a place of hope, which is another association for Jupiter.
Throughout June, we’ve been able to witness the magnificent “conjunction” (coming together) of Venus and Jupiter in the sky, This occurred in the sign of Cancer, where they were at our nation’s founding. We can use the keywords “big-hearted” for Venus-Jupiter and “homeland” and “patriotism” for Cancer. These two bright and beautiful planets were exactly together on June 9 and were quite close for many days before and after. Now they are farther apart, while still occupying the same sign as one another, now both in Leo. I had hoped with a combination like this that our core principals would be in evidence for our big birthday celebration. The actuality is quite mixed, with key recent Supreme Court decisions almost at odds in principal. The first permits “big money” (there’s Venus-Jupiter again) to influence elections, which definitely does not promote equality and one man-one vote. The second affirms the 14th Amendment’s assertion of birthright citizenship. (Jupiter relates to legislation and the law while Cancer is the sign of family or tribe and who belongs to it.) And another point of that decision is also very important: that a President cannot change the intent or effect of an Amendment by Executive Order. A third decision (and an erroneous one, in my opinion) undermines the principle of separation of powers and equal branches of the government in allowing a President to fire (without cause!) members of (supposedly) independent commissions established by Congress. Without checks and balances – and when the co-equal branch of Congress does not assert its power relative to the Executive branch and the other co-equal branch of the judicial system permits the Executive branch to go unchecked – a “nation of laws” has a hard time living up to its aspirations.
Astrologers anticipated the “Pluto Return” for the United States “birth” chart ahead of this important birthday. (A planet’s “return” is when it comes around to the same zodiac location it occupied at birth.) Pluto takes about 248 years to circle the Sun, and thus the zodiac (the path of the planets’ travel) and any chart. In 2022, it returned to its July 4, 1776 location on three occasions (due to the back-and-forth travel related to retrogradation). Those dates were February 20, July 11 and December 28. Pluto is associated with destruction and reconstruction, death and rebirth, as well as “shared resources,” which include everything under the macroeconomic umbrella. In 2022, we were trying to recover from the global pandemic – and doing better economically than most of the rest of the world. But federal spending increased and that in turn, aggravated inflation (sounds like Jupiter expanding Venus’s money matters Ultimately this turned enough voters in the 2022 mid-term election away from Democrats to put the Republicans back in power in both Houses of Congress.
If we look at the Declaration chart, Pluto and Mercury are the only planets that are retrograde (an indicator of lessons to learn) and they are three degrees from exactly opposite one another. This combination expresses as divided and contradictory opinions, changing one’s mind, and swinging back and forth from one extreme to another. When we bring the Declaration chart forward using “progressions” (a common forecasting technique using positions for the planets measured for the number of days past birth equal to the number of years of age), we see that Mercury is currently coming out of a retrograde cycle. The exact dates for the cycle depend on what “birth time” is used for the USA*.
I lean toward the chart for 12:16 PM, the time of the unanimous vote of the Continental Congress to declare independence. (Actually, it was a re-vote because the delegation was incomplete on July 2.) Another popular time is early in the morning, when Uranus (the planet of rebellion) was rising (coming into manifestation), promoted by astrologer Luke Broughton in 1861. (Uranus was not yet discovered in 1776.) The most popular time is in the late afternoon and was published by an English freemason, Ebenezer Sibly. it has been hypothesized this was based on planetary positions and the angles (the degrees on the four directions) at the moments of the spring equinox and summer solstice in 1776. Seasonal charts are often used for forecasting. Sibly set his chart in London because the Declaration was a blow to the English crown.
These birth times yield dates that are different but not by that much relative to history – see below. Using any time on July 4, 1776, the degree range for the retrograde is 20º2’ Aquarius to 4º57’ Pisces and would be “in the area” of the USA Aquarius Moon, which is the heavenly body said to “rule” Cancer (therefore very important for a nation like the USA with the Sun in Cancer) and which relates to the public at large. This gives us the idea that our people are changing their minds a lot during the latter decades of the 20th Century and the first decades of the 21st Century, following our bicentennial and coming to our semiquincentennial.
Progressed Mercury Rx dates for 2:16 AM chart 4/30/1995 – 4/1/2017 (natal Moon at 18º12’ is not in the retrograde range but close to the ending degree)
Progressed Mercury Rx dates for 12:16 PM chart 11/29/1994 – 11/1/2016
conjunctions to 12:16 Moon at 24º13’ 10/10/1982, 3/31/2008, 6/29/2026
Progressed Mercury Rx dates for 5:10 PM (“Sibly”) chart 9/16/1994 – 8/19/2016
conjunctions to natal Moon at 27º10’ 8/19/1994, 3/19/2005, 8/26/2029
The 12:16 chart dates interest me because they align with key elections. The mid-term elections of November 1994 (during Bill Clinton’s first term) have been described as the “Republican Revolution” because with their “Contract with America,” Republicans captured both Houses of Congress for the first time since 1952 and it was the first midterm election since 1946 where they ended unified Democratic control of Congress under a Democratic president. The November 2016 presidential election was highly controversial with Hillary Clinton winning the popular vote but Donald Trump taking the electoral college amidst accusations of Russia putting their finger on the scale of the US elections. And look at that third date for a conjunction to the US Moon – it’s right at the doorway of our semiquincentennial!
In addition to influences we may still be experiencing from Progressed Mercury being retrograde, another type of Mercury Retrograde is important now, the current movement of Mercury (called “transiting”). It is in the backwards portion of its back-and-forth travel and it’s in Cancer, as it was at our birth. We are having a Mercury Return, part of a trio due to being retrograde. (There is a Mercury Return for any chart about once a year but it is not always part of a trio.) The USA Mercury is at 24º Cancer and the minutes depend on which birth time is used, because Mercury can travel fast. There is less than 20’ (a third of a degree) difference in Mercury’s position in these three charts. The minutes decrease because Mercury appears to travel backwards when retrograde. The dates and times of Mercury’s return are very close. (All times are expressed in EDT.)
2:16 AM birth time Mercury 24º28’ Cancer, returning on 6/22 (4:57 PM), 7/6 (1:39 PM) and 8/5 (11:32 AM)
12:16 PM birth time Mercury 24º17’ Cancer, returning on 6/22 (8:42 AM), 7/6 (10:26 PM) and 8/5 (11:32 AM)
5:10 PM birth time Mercury 24º11’ Cancer, returning on 6/22 (4:37 AM), 7/7 (2:48 AM) and 8/5 (9:42 AM)
The most important occurrence of an aspect (connection) made multiple times in a planet’s retrograde cycle is the middle one, when the planet is in reverse. The first and third are when the planet is in forward motion moving through the degree range of the back-up. In this case, the 7/6 – 7/7 middle date is right after the semiquincentennial. In the birthday chart, Mercury is less than half a degree from natal Mercury (regardless of the birth time) and that’s considered close enough to have a strong effect. (Planets’ positions in a birthday chart signal an influence lasting for about a year, beginning three months before the birthday.) Mercury Retrograde and a “birthday year” containing a Mercury Retrograde show an ideal time to review and look from a different perspective or see things you missed before. With a retrograde Mercury Return, it’s an introspective time to see ourselves with new eyes or to see a pattern of history repeating itself.
Following this Mercury Retrograde cycle, when Mercury emerges from the backtracking range, it will oppose the USA natal Pluto on August 7 and put a spotlight on how we bounce between extremes (related to Pluto) of thought and speech (related to Mercury). The news will likely also discuss economic disparity, as mentioned earlier in relation to Mercury opposite Pluto. This will be only two days after our Mercury Return.
Mercury has a retrograde cycle three times a year but the signs and degrees where these occur switch around. I searched the transiting Mercury Retrograde ranges for the long period encompassing our Progressed Mercury going back-and-forth, which stretches from the time it entered the back-up range on 2/1/1980 until it leaves the range on 1/19/2036, a period of 56 years (related to the 56 days for this retrograde range back in 1777, from 1/24 to 3/21). In this time frame, there are five occurrences of a triple opposition to natal Pluto, in the summers of 1986, 1993, 2006, 2019 and 2032 (each time 13 years after the one before, which seems to be the repetition period for Mercury Retrogrades). In 1993, the middle date, on 7/5, came closest to our birthday. For the years when there was a Mercury Retrograde in Cancer that did not make a triple opposition, the closest to the Pluto opposition degree that a turning point (“station”) of Mercury occurs is this year, 2026! This makes me think the August 5 Mercury Return and the August 7 opposition will be quite significant. Mark your calendar and stay tuned!
In a wide view of history, our Pluto Return signals a time frame of several years before and after 2022 for reinventing ourselves or reestablishing our beginning principals – provided we can figure out what’s most important! Remember that the founding fathers had many disagreements as they hammered out the Constitution, primarily about how much power should be invested in a federal government versus the states, as well as how to count enslaved people for the purposes of determining taxation and the states’ number of representatives. There was no mention of rights for slaves or Native Americans or even for women. We are still working on issues of freedom and equality, and economic inequity. The only people who voted in our first elections were white men with property. “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer” was never more true. The real question is, are we any closer to a “perfect union” 250 years into the “Great American Experiment.” We’ve got a long way to go. It seems like when we take steps toward greater fairness and an more inclusive society, there’s a backlash reaction that sends us into reverse, and that’s in keeping with our natal Mercury retrograde opposite Pluto retrograde.
Another important concern for our semiquincentennial involves Uranus in Gemini. When astrologer Luke Broughton proposed the Uranus rising chart in 1861 (as the Civil War was getting underway), he was prompted by his observation that when Uranus was in Gemini, the US was at war. (Uranus is in any sign for about 7 years every 84 years. Due to retrograding back and forth, it can take more than a year to enter or leave a sign.) Uranus was in Gemini during the Revolutionary War (1774-75 to 1782), the Civil War (1858-59 to 1865-66) and World War II (1941-42 to 1948-49). Most recently, Uranus entered Gemini 7/7/2025, retreated into Taurus 11/7/2025 and re-entered Gemini 4/25/2026, by which time we were at war again, suddenly again, this time in Iran. Uranus remains in Gemini until entering Cancer 8/3/2032. It makes a brief reprise 12/12/2032 to 5/22/2033, not returning for another 84 years. We are in the “war zone” of Uranus in Gemini and a particularly volatile trigger is at hand. Exactly on this important birthday, Mars (named for the god of war) joins Uranus at 3º52’ of Gemini. This pair is associated with unusual competitions, rash action, accidents, fires, skirmishes, surprise attacks, rebellions, even a new revolution. In an Air sign, this duo puts attention on drone warfare and A.I. Mars like fresh starts, planting seeds and getting the ball rolling. Uranus relates to technological developments and Gemini is the sign of communication.. This pairing is brief but because it occurs at our birthday, it has that one-year effective period mentioned previously. Mars passes Uranus about every two years and this meet-up happens three more times in Gemini, on 6/23/2028, 6/15/2030 and 6/6/2032. The current period may not be the first time we’re embroiled in spur-of-the-moment altercations. There’s an exciting air of possibilities for innovation, though, and the likelihood of quantum leaps in local transportation (electric cars, buses, trains), information exchange (ever-evolving gadgetry, apps and virtual options) and education (robot teachers?!). Planetary combinations typically have a spectrum of manifestations that range from negative to positive uses, so we can hope for more of the positive kind than the scary type. The chances for a good outcome are enhanced by a current pattern between the three outer-most planets (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) in harmonious links with one another (trine and sextile). By virtue of joining with Uranus, Mars inserts itself into the configuration. Jupiter is also nearly the precise degree to connect with these other planets, as well. The net effect could be a turn toward an ideal accompanied by the desire to achieve it, even if it’s a struggle. There is luck in fighting for a shared dream for humanity now, whether that is global or localized in a certain country.
On that cheery note, Happy Semiquincentennial Birthday, Uncle Sam! Let’s celebrate what’s good about our country, knowing we will probably always be an imperfect union.
*The origins of the early morning and late afternoon USA birth times are sourced from The Astrology Podcast of April 28, 2020. The 12:16 PM time comes from an article by Ken Bowser in the Spring 2019 NCGR Journal, based on an 1851 Harper’s magazine article cited by astrologer John Haselrigg in 1900.