Abraham Lincoln, The Great Emancipator, was born February 12, 1809, 6:54 a.m., in Hodgenville, KY. 205 years ago. Ironically, he was born less than 100 miles from the birthplace of Jefferson Davis, perhaps his greatest adversary in life, the first and only President of the Confederate States of America.
While Lincoln’s chart shows a man of high ideals with a spiritual bent, Davis’ chart shows a man with very definite ideas, often fraught with misconceptions, unrealistic viewpoints and confused actions. His view of slaves, or servants (6th house) shows strongly in his chart as an ideal he went to war with the US government over (and is similar to that of present day Edward Snowden). His chart however, is not without compassion and greatness and like Lincoln, he was said to have worked to avoid civil war and secession before the fact.
Lincoln is a 23 degree Aquarius Sun with a 22 degree Aquarius ascendant, the sign associated with a ‘world view,’ and people in general. Aquarius is a fixed air sign, that is often found in the natal charts of politicians.
Lincoln’s moon is 27 degrees of Capricorn in the 12th house square Mars at 25 degrees of Libra in his 8th house. This configuration describes the loss of his Mother at age 9 to milk sickness:, she drank milk from a cow who’d grazed on poisonous white snakeroot and the subsequent grief he suffered at her loss. It was said he never got over her death and was often quoted as saying, ‘ all that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to her.‘ Lincoln helped his Father make her coffin.
The moon describes the wife in a man’s chart, and as it squares Mars, this would represent friction in his domestic setting and disagreements and upsets in his tempestuous relationship with Mary Todd Lincoln which is well documented.
The 12th house is considered the house of the subconscious mind (and institutions), and those with planets placed here generally need a certain amount of solitude and reflection. It is the 12th house where our shadows play out, often fraught with pain and secrets we do not reveal to the public. Lincoln called himself the ‘loneliest man in the world.’ With a debilitated moon in Capricorn he would have sought to control his emotions, resulting in his often perceived somber appearance. Underneath, this would lend itself to much inner turmoil, many upsets and sorrows in life, and secret passions, good or bad that he kept private.
Moon-Mars individuals lead lives fraught with upsets and and this transit is far from lucky or conducive to harmony or personal happiness. Melancholy was a part of Lincoln’s life and he suffered traumas and losses that began with his Mother, included siblings and eventually several of his own children. Death was a big part of his life before and during the Civil War.
The 12th house is considered the house of karma, and his Moon square Mars in the eighth house of death would point to a violent ending in a position as exposed and public as his.
The 12th house shows danger, clandestine affairs, and secret enemies while the 8th house has a Scorpio connotation and shows death.
Mars (along with intercepted Uranus in Scorpio) in the 8th shows us an individual whose goal was to reform, or transform his surroundings and world. Mars Libra tells us he was a people pleaser and someone who would prefer to avoid confrontations. His personal motivation toward conflict was expressed in the Libran statement “Am I not destroying enemies when I make friends of them.” He was known as a story teller who often drew a crowd during nights when we was traveling as a circuit lawyer.
Four US Presidents have been assassinated in office beginning with Lincoln. Each of them had adverse configurations from their 8th house that include Mars the ruler of guns, and Uranus the planet ruling explosive situations and explosions, chaos and upheaval.
James Garfield and William McKinley both had Uranus in the 8th house square Mars, and JFK had a stellium of planets in his 8th house including Mars, Mercury and Jupiter, all square Uranus in the 4th house, that shows end of life conditions.
In our time Ronald Regan survived a assassins attempt, but he had no planets in his 8th house, nor did he have a Mars-Uranus aspect in his natal chart.
Lincoln’s Neptune-Saturn conjunction lies at the top of his chart next to his Sagittarius midheaven at 6-3 degrees of Sagittarius in the ninth house, which is the realm of ideas, religion philosophies and worldviews. The midheaven describes your reputation, what you are known for in the world and career.
Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, the planet of expansion, laws, government, big ideas, justice and fairness and this configuration shows us the driving force, and basic outlook or world view that drove his dreams and hopes of freeing the slaves, as it was just, and fair. There is a spiritual connotation to this transit that shows deeply held views and the belief his ideas can become practical reality.
Lincoln’s own Jupiter falls in his first house in Pisces, the sign of its dignity, increasing his luck, spirituality and compassion for others. It also makes him intuitive, psychic and an attractive figure who was elected President twice.
Other well known figures we are familiar with who have this transit include Nelson Mandela (Saturn-Neptune in Leo) and the current Pope (Saturn opposing Neptune Pisces-Aries).
Both Neptune and Saturn trine Venus in Aries in his first house, giving him luck, an attractive appeal, and a major planetary boost that would help to achieve his goals, along with luck and brilliance.
Saturn-Neptune represents the law he studied, (Jupiter and Sagittarius rule lawyers, judges and politicians) passing the bar with less than a year of formal schoolroom training all told. He had a brilliant legal mind, and spend most of his life as a practicing attorney and was a 1 term US Representative before becoming President. He held many jobs in life but most dealt with politics and the law, which is exactly what his chart shows him suited for.
With Saturn-Neptune in Sagittarius he knew how to transform dreams and ideas into practical reality based on justice, and this was his life accomplishment as well as the reason for his assassination three months after the passage of the amendment abolishing slavery.
Abraham Lincoln never joined a church, but sometimes attended Protestant services with his wife and children. As a young man he was a skeptic, but after the deaths of his children he became concerned with God’s plan for mankind. He was private about his beliefs and respectful of the beliefs of others. Lincoln’s friend Jesse Fell stated, that the president “seldom communicated to anyone his views” on religion, and he went on to suggest that those views were not orthodox: “on the innate depravity of man, the character and office of the great head of the Church, the Atonement, the infallibility of the written revelation, the performance of miracles, the nature and design of…future rewards and punishments…and many other subjects, he held opinions utterly at variance with what are usually taught in the church.”
While Saturn-Neptune gave him a broad world view, tolerance, and a career in the legal field, the same transit lent itself toward depression, which he referred to as ‘melancholy” in his lifetime. Saturn-Neptune individuals often suffer from depression and anxiety.
Three planets in his chart lie in Pisces, the sign ruling spirituality and 12th house matters showing mystical traits and abilities. Mercury, Pluto and Jupiter formed a stellium of planets at 10, 13 and 22 degrees of Pisces in his first house. Mercury-Pluto gave him an intense mind seeking ideas based in spirituality and compassion and Jupiter in Pisces, falls in the sign of its rulership making this stellium of planets very powerful in his first house.
Pisces is the most mystical of signs and Lincoln is said to have been able to ‘go to the other country, ‘in meditation, and had significant dreams before big events in his life occurred. He attended at least one séance in the White House with his wife after his son died, but there are conflicting views as to what happened. One account stated he investigated the medium to discover he was a fraud.
In Spiritualism in Abraham Lincolns White House, author Michelle L. Hamilton wrote, “A product of their Kentucky childhood, the Lincolns shared a belief in dreams and omens which they incorporated in their Christian faith. The impressions of the spirit were not lost on Lincoln either, whose sensitive nature, eager mind, and depression-ravaged psyche made him tender to-even eager for-invisible realities. During his lifetime he experienced dreams, omens, visions, and revelatory occurrences of nearly every kind and they did not decrease with age.”
The most famous of his dreams occurred just before he died. Mercury square Neptune can symbolize an intuitiveness and Neptune rules dreams. In his most famous dream that was recounted to friends days before the end of his life he stated that he heard mourning and crying in the White House. Upon hearing it he asked a soldier what was wrong, to be told the President had been killed by an assassins bullet. A few days later he was dead, killed by John Wilkes Booth, as he sat in the Presidential box and the Ford Theatre on the night of April 14, 1865 as the Civil War was winding down, only 5 days after General Lee surrendered the Confederate Army.
April 14, 1865
Lincoln’s chart clearly showed an attempt or attempts on his life, and subsequent death, and his chart played out as it was written, as all our charts do.
On the night of the shooting the main planetary influence aspecting his chart was Saturn conjunct his 8th house (death) Mars at 27 degrees and square his moon in the 12th house(secret enemies), and this shows danger of death for an extended period of time. On April 14 however, the Sun at 25 degrees Aries began an opposition to his Mars/Saturn in the 8th house square the moon in the 12th forming a powerful T-square- a transit involving 3 planets that would set off this catastrophic event aspect, resulting in death as it showed in his natal chart.
Neptune was conjunct his Venus (at its detriment) at 7 degrees Aries, showing us a Venusian pleasure (theatre) and Aries is ruled by Mars, while Neptune is the planet of trickery, deception and theatre and actors. Mars was at 7 degrees of Cancer square his Venus /Neptune where action would be expressed in an emotional-even patriotic manner, as James Wilkes booth thought himself doing by killing Lincoln. Furthermore, he believed he would be celebrated as a result.
At 10: 15 the time of the shooting, the moon was at 9 degrees Sagittarius conjunct his midheaven, having just crossed his Saturn-Neptune (ideals) becoming the final planet to set off the T-square between Saturn, Mars, his moon and the Sun and ending his life and aspirations.
The Mystic Rectangle of April 14
Casting a chart for April 14, 1865 at 10:15, Washington, DC, the planets were forming a rare celestial event called a mystic rectangle that is in the shape of a rectangle (a pattern of ‘practical mysticism’ according to astrologer Jude Cowell) that would remain until he passed away the next morning.
This unusual configuration is made up of 4 planets consisting of 2 trines and 2 sextile aspects interwoven with opposition angles. Looking at the most important transits in the mystic rectangle on April 14:
-the Sun was opposing Saturn at 27 degrees of Libra in the 11th house ruling the government and head of state.-the original plan was to kidnap or kill the VP and Secretary of State, along with Lincoln, but the plan failed and only Lincoln died.
-Mars was in the 7th house of open enemies (JWB made clear to others his disdain of Lincoln. Lincoln was alleged to have made an earlier attempt to meet JWB, but was refused ) square Neptune in Aries in the 4th. Neptune shows theatre/an actor and deceptive plan, and the 4th house rules the country or the people of the country-home. Mars-Neptune and can represent death, depression, despair and the country was thrown into mourning.
Jupiter opposed Uranus at 29-26 degrees of Sagittarius-Gemini showing a sudden event involving a known enemy in the signs that rule ideas, ideologies and governments. Jupiter stationed to go direct one hour 7 minutes before Lincoln passed away and Jupiter is the significator of the Republican Party.
Mercury and Pluto were conjunct at 12-14 degrees of Taurus in the 5th house of entertainment. Mercury-Pluto in Taurus shows a younger male with a determined intention. The planets in Taurus would signify wealth, attractiveness. JWB, a Taurus himself, had recently made the equivalent of 500,000 a yr in today’s money and was considered somewhat famous/attractive/wealthy by the time of the murder.
The moon at 9 degrees of Sagittarius, in the 12th house shows plots, plans, those who would disrupt society/government.
Venus conjunct Algoal at 26 degrees of Taurus Venus was in the 6th house (ruling public servants) at 25.40 degrees of Taurus conjunct Algoal, the most malefic fixed star in astrology that lies at 26 Taurus. Algoal is associated with beheadings, or ‘losing one’s head.’ The 16th President was shot in the back of the head, the bullet nearly protruding through the temple. He never regained consciousness.
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