by Silvianne K. Delmars | Nov 12, 2024 |
On Friday, November 15, the Full Moon at 24 Taurus 01 will oppose the Scorpio Sun, exact at 1:28pm PST. This is a powerful Full Moon, coming in the midst of this season of change as marked by cycles ranging from the most immediate (monthly, seasonal) up to and including the largest cycles we can track as humans on this planet, gazing into the night sky, as we stand at the cusp of a great 26,000-year turning.
I will be taking the middle road in this month’s musings, weaving strands from United States history to illuminate the energies offered by this Full Moon timing, pregnant with both challenge and opportunity. Will we choose continued enmity or compassionate forgiveness – as individuals, a nation, or even (dare I hope) as global humanity? We are in a time of choosing.
For an insightful view of the more immediate influences surrounding this Full Moon moment, see Daniel’s recent article here!
War Is Never Inevitable
I have been on a journey in recent weeks, launching myself into the embodied reality of a Great American Road Trip. As I began a new phase of my life last month, choosing once again the life of a full-time nomad, I felt called to head not forward (archetypally speaking) towards the American West (my ultimate destination), but backwards, towards the East. Tracing the threads of my ancestral past on this continent, I followed my heart back in time, determined to practice (however imperfectly) a radical trust in intuitive guidance, choosing to give precedence to the promptings of the inner map rather than the outer one.
One of the many magical synchronicities that resulted from this unconventional navigational strategy was finding myself, without prior plan, on November 5, the very day of the long-anticipated US election/selection, at the Appomattox Courthouse National Historical Park in the beautiful Valley of Virginia.
As I wandered through the reconstructed village where the US Civil War effectively ended (although fighting would stretch out for several more months further south, it was now clear that the Confederacy had no real future), my heart was deeply opened. I walked and I cried, immersing myself in the exhibits and the poignant stories they tell of this turning point in US national history, as I pondered the historical roots from which the conflict grew, and the many deep resonances with the roiling currents of our troubled present.
I start with the personal conviction – based not so much on history as on a larger spiritual framework of who we are and why we came here – that the War Between the States was not inevitable. And yet, given the times, the leadership and the collective state of consciousness, it became so. I start with this, because to me,. It is not who we are. It is what we have devolved into over the last several thousand years of our long fall from grace. In the context of this view, neither “side” is wholly right, nor wholly wrong. There is always another way. And no populace in a country where a war is fought ever wins, no matter the outcome.
I do not claim to be an expert, or even a particular aficionado, of Civil War history. The facts of what actually happened as General Robert E. Lee, head of the Army of Northern Virginia, surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant in the parlor of a private home in an obscure corner of Virginia, like everything else in human history, are sketchy at best and open to various interpretations. What follows is my perception of this historical moment as I have come to understand it. I offer it through a mythical lens, enhanced by insights from the TOTAMS astrological paradigm, in an attempt to illuminate aspects of our ongoing national shadow, past and present, as we seek to create a different future.
The Story
Lee and Grant finalized the surrender and came to terms on April 9, 1865. I ran a chart with the time of 3:00 pm, as an approximation of the moment when the papers were actually signed, although they spent several hours in the house together that afternoon, and compared it with chart of this current Taurus Full Moon.
The first, most obvious alignment occurs with the conjunction of Chiron on the Full Moon chart at 19 Aries 50 Rx to the Sun on the Appomattox chart at 19 Aries 58, exact to within 8 minutes. As might be expected, this pivotal point in the ending of a bloody war (more Americans were killed than in any other war before or since) has everything to do with the distortions of our expression of the sacred warrior archetype. Of course, since the US is presently in its Chiron return, the US Chiron is also here, just a degree away.
Lee’s army was decimated, desperately fleeing in an attempt to unite with a stronger force to the west, relentlessly pursued by Grant and the better equipped Union army on all sides. They were ragged and starving after their last, failed attempt on the morning of April 9 to escape the trap they found themselves in, as Grant’s army was finally able to get in front of them and irrevocably block their advance. Lee knew he had now no choice but to surrender.
Humiliated and defeated, the beaten army had no idea what to expect. Lee dressed in his finest uniform, confiding to his staff that he fully expected to be arrested and wanted to put his best foot forward. Acting on the wishes of President Abraham Lincoln, Grant showed unprecedented compassion. The Confederates would be paroled after surrendering their weapons and other military property. If they did not take up arms again against the government, they would not be prosecuted. Officers were allowed to keep their horses and side arms. At the special request of Lee, his men were also allowed to keep their horse and their mules (they had provided their own mounts, and they needed them to get back to the peacetime business of farming). Grant agreed.
The restraint, respect, and compassion demonstrated by these two leaders was transmitted to and followed by those in command below them. Over the next several days, as 30,000 parole documents were hastily printed in the local tavern to provide safe passage for the soldiers as they returned to their homes, the Confederate soldiers were overwhelmed with the courtesy and respect they were offered by the Union army. The demoralized Confederates were moved to tears, undone by such unexpected compassion after four years of bloody war, full of terrible losses on both sides.
Sabian Symbol Aries 20
Let’s take a look at the Sabian Symbol for this Aries 20 degree frequency (we round up for Sabian degrees), “A young girl feeding birds in winter,” as elucidated by the events at Appomattox.
Feeding Birds in Winter, Sabian Symbol Aries 20 by Ruby Fumizki
The compassion embodied in the Sabian Symbol of this Chiron/Sun conjunction degree is so movingly present in the circumstances of this mythic surrender. Dane Rudhyar’s keynote for this symbol is “overcoming crisis through compassion.” In his commentary on the degree, James Burgess writes, “Seeing life as a constant opportunity to experience love. Life’s very harshness is what enable us to learn of love’s unfathomable depth. Being innocent and fearless in love. Nature is harsh – people and animals suffer and starve, and they die. Yet without harshness compassion could not exist; there would be no place for it. There is no higher purpose than to live life as a constant expression of compassionate love. This is neither fanciful nor sentimental love; it is feeding the hungry stranger.”
As so often happens as we dance through life with the Sabian Symbols, we see here not just a metaphorical, but also a literal expression of the symbol. Like the young girl feeding birds in winter, the vanquishing army not only chose to treat their defeated enemies with respect, but literally provided food for the starving remnants.
Essential Aries/Libra Axis Alignment
There is another Aries alignment between the Appomattox and Full Moon charts involving both sides of this essential Aries/Libra axis. The Moon of the Appomattox surrender chart is at 05 Libra 24, conjunct the South Node of the Full Moon chart at 05 Libra 39. This is a deeply karmic signature, as the Libra lineage (the Moon) of that conciliatory moment reverberates with the karmic past of this present moment’s Full Moon chart. Strikingly, the Midheaven of the US chart is only 3 degrees away at 02 Libra 07.
Which means, of course, that on the other side of the axis the South Node of the Full Moon chart, at 05 Aries 39, is aligned with the IC of the US chart. And from the Appomattox surrender chart we add Neptune at 08 Aries 01. Confusion and disillusion – or an inspirational dream of what once was and could be again?
Venus Karmic Alignment
There is yet another exact, karmic alignment between the two charts, as the Full Moon itself, at 24 Taurus 01, is in the same degree as Venus in the ninth house on the Appomattox surrender chart. In that pregnant moment of despair and defeat, the sacred feminine chose to turn towards Taurus intimacy, paving the way for a more peaceful future in which a re-united nation might rebuild on a sounder basis, freed from the evils of slavery, moving together in a new way.
This promise of true peace and understanding, of course, was not to be. Lincoln was assassinated a few short days later and the tides of history moved on as voices of revenge and retribution became louder, and narrow-mindedness and personal greed shaped the policies of reconstruction, with disastrous results. In many ways, we are still fighting the Civil War.
Echoing Moment Of Crisis And Opportunity
Of course, the split in our country did not begin nor end with that war. It began when my ancestors, along with many others, arrived to this “new” land and chose to be conquerors instead of collaborators with those who lived here. And was immeasurably deepened when we chose to bring the evils of slavery here, and to found an economic system based on this evil. It is beyond the scope of this short article to even begin to address these central issues. What is abundantly clear, is that we have missed so many chances to make different decisions, and to make amends for the past so we might go forward in a different way.
The US Moon, at 27 Aquarius 12, is in a close square relationship with this Moon/Venus conjunction in earthy Taurus. This points to the tendency to detach from the very real consequences of our history and to spurn true embodiment in favor of disembodied ideals. We see the dangers of this Aquarius shadow looming on all sides, in the rise of an artificially induced one world order and its rejection of the very essence of what it means to be human.
Will we choose the highest Taurus ideal of intimacy and enjoyment of this paradise we have been given? We will find the compassion to forgive our enemies and to finally “send each other home” – to begin the work of rebuilding paradise? Or will we sink once again into short-sighted greed and mindless addiction to the behests of manufactured “infotainment,” at the expense of real human contact?
As Daniel has so often reminded us over recent years, a guiding question for our time is, “what will it take for us to open our hearts?” It is especially central this month, as Leo overstory evening star Venus journeys through the heart chakra gate, enhanced by this week’s Full Moon along the Taurus/Scorpio axis of pleasure and power.
Are we willing to move toward the promise of these alignments? Will will finally choose to face up to the mistakes of the past, and the resulting tragedies they engendered, so we can begin to live up to our original self-conception as a shining beacon for the world, offering our wealth and strength to defend the rights of those most in need? Or will we continue down the self-destructive path of prostituting our idealism to the service of greed and corporate gain, sending our young men and women to slaughter and be slaughtered as mere mercenaries for an amoral cause.
For many on both sides at Appomattox the horrific experiences of four years of war became a doorway to compassion, not retribution, influenced by the inspiring example of those who led them, and with the promise of peace at last beckoning to their better natures. Although the moment did not bear fruit, it lives on in our hearts, in a mythic moment beyond time. May it serve to inspire us in this echoing moment of crisis and opportunity.