Inauguration 1953: A Prayer for America

Dwight D. Eisenhower, official photo, May 29, 1959; Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

July 1, 2022

Reaching Back for a Better America

by Jude Cowell

As my fellow Americans and I face Independence Day 2022 with less constitutionally granted independence and freedom than before due to an overreaching Supreme Court, a tribute to a certain American Republican president might actually be appropriate for the July 4th holiday:

On January 20, 1953, Dwight D. Eisenhower was sworn in as our 34th president. Instead of one Bible for his Oath of Office, two Bibles were used: George Washington's Masonic Bible from 1789, some say turned to II Chronicles 7:14 (disputed), and President Eisenhower's own "West Point Bible" turned to Psalms 33:12. Eisenhower then gave his own Prayer and delivered his Inaugural Address. At his 1953 Inauguration, 'Ike' sounds like an actual American, and a listen of his 1953 address is recommended, if you can spare a few minutes.

Then recently, progressive broadcaster-author Thom Hartmann commented that in his opinion, Dwight Eisenhower was the last Republican president who believed in democracy. In fact, Eisenhower's 1953 Inaugural Address is a bracing tonic for those of us determined to fight against the authoritarian wave of lies, deceit, cruelty, and strong-armed paternalism now sweeping across America (Vote Blue in 2022 - and 2024!) and gaining hoofholds around the globe. Among others, Eisenhower's mentions of concepts such as "moral stamina" and "love of liberty" remind us of the America that, struggling toward a perfect union, we want to keep. Yet if our country must regress, let it be to these and other higher concepts and principles, such as President Lincoln's "better angels of our nature" - while leaving behind the racism and hatred of by-gone eras for those are what degrade and doom our nation to the ashbin of History. And anyone who promotes such negativity are enemy saboteurs of America, many disguised as "patriots." Yet as you know, dear reader, using religion to gain and wield political power is precisely what America's Founders feared!

So for the astro-curious, here's a view of the natal horoscope of Dwight David Eisenhower, born October 14, 1890. His chart shows Sun, Moon, Mercury, and Uranus in Libra, warrior Mars @13Cap39 (directly opposing US Sun of July 4, 1776), Jupiter @2AQ44, Saturn @12Vir39, Virgo rising, Gemini at Midheaven, and of course, the Neptune-Pluto Conjunction in early degrees of Gemini - at Midheaven with his 10th house North Node @17Gemini. Yes, the Neptune-Pluto duo can be bad news in the criminality and occult realms but for evolved individuals receptive to such influences, their combined energies can provide self-knowledge and a refined spiritual understanding (A. Oken). Then notably, in the realms of Politics, Ike's Libran Uranus can express and behave as a troublemaker, and/or as one whose reforms are in the interests of the public. A WWII General, perhaps his Uranian behavior was a case of alternating expressions!

Now at the risk of seeming to be sympatico with the current evangelical, Family-run, Opus Dei, Dominionist, theocratic bizarros sticking their camel's nose under the tent of liberty, privacy and other rights (with whom I am non-sympatico) while they set about stirring a noxious brew of church and state, let's consider the Scriptural messages that President Eisenhower spotlighted that day in 1953 as he began his presidency and prayed for America:

II Chronicles 7:14, our Creator's promise to heal the land of His people who turn from wickedness and seek Him. And here I'll quote Psalms 33:12 (KJV): "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom He hath chosen for His own."

Well, to me this means that genuine spiritual renewal is needed across our nation but I must suppose that the current batch of holier-than-thous think they're the people referred to here. Yet through willful blindness, or their lack of genuine spirtual understanding, they leave out empathy for humanity, and show cruelty which negates any claim to such a worthy status that they might have had. Why, they act, legislate, and pronounce from on high as if they've never read the New Testament at all! And yes, we're all on paths to greater understanding (ye olde "God's not through with me yet") but the paths that theocrats trod seem darker than one would hope for leaders of our country - and We The People are expected to follow! Instead, their riding roughshod over the majority's wishes feels more of a return to Benito's Fascism or Adolf's Nazism, and those would be very dark paths indeed.

Therefore, in honor of the recent revelation of ketchup dripping down a White House wall (so in the news these days), here's a brief video clip from Mary Trump in case you missed it: Why Donald Trump Throws Food: An Origin Story - It's All About the Mash Potatoes!

So hopefully we can agree that POTUS #34 is a major contrast to man-baby POTUS #45. And to me, the contrast represents a sad symbol of how America and the White House have come down in the world. How much President Biden can elevate the country and the White House remains to be seen. But undermining his efforts at improvment is not in our country's, or in democracy's, best interests.

A Closely Related Post: On April 20, 2023, the Solar Eclipse Series That Affects All US Presidential Elections returns. And all lovers of democracy will need all the support we can get.

When US Neptune Turned Rx by Progression

by Jude Cowell

On January 20, 1953, East Portico, Capitol Building, Washington DC Dwight David Eisenhower was first inaugurated as President of the United States (page links to audio of his 1953 inaugural address). His was America's 42nd Presidential Inauguration.

A review of significant events during the year 1953 provides the curious with a snapshot of the era but one symbolic astrological event of interest to me is that America's natal Neptune (22Vir25) from July 4, 1776 turned retrograde ('Rx') by Secondary Progression ('SP') on June 10, 1953 @27Vir06:27.

In the day-for-a-year SP method the position of progressed Neptune corresponds to the real-time position of transiting Neptune on December 29, 1776. So as you can tell from the date, the American Revolution was in full swing and December 29th was the day that General George Washington and his troops re-crossed the Delaware River back into New Jersey after their victory at the Battle of Trenton. The dates and events fall within what is known as The Ten Crucial Days for America.

Now the house that our national Neptune resided in on July 4, 1776 depends upon the timing of the horoscope, and to make matters more complex, other dates are often used by various astrologers. One such is known as America's Powell Horoscope set for July 1, 1776 (7:09 pm LMT Philadelphia ASC 6Cap07; MC 29Lib56) with an 8th house Neptune @22Vir22. But no matter which 1776 chart is progressed, the sign and degrees remain the same (though perhaps with slightly different dates? I haven't progressed them all), and rounded-up, Neptune's Sabian Symbol for '23 Virgo' = "A Lion Tamer Rushes Fearlessly into the Circus Arena" which sounds appropriately embattled for the era and reminds me, if not you, of a belligerent America's continued focus through the centuries on opponents and foes, creating them where they previously didn't exist. Of course, betrayal is a common word where saboteur Neptune is concerned and the newer term "blowback" comes windily to mind thanks to the neo-con wars the American people were lied into.

And when we look at the phenomenon of retrogression of planets and their relationship to the Sun there are differences between natal and mundane planets, yes, but this post is meant only in a general sense. Not being an astronomer I shall leave it to you, dear reader, to investigate the cosmic mechanics of the matter if needed; therefore, what I type here is in relation to societal and political shifts in our country, its ideology and leadership due to our 1776 Direct Neptune's symbolic change into retrograde motion (1953) and how the planet's altered condition influences America's Neptunian functions in such realms as idealism, honesty vs dishonesty, media, and the longing for the unseen, among other things (amorphous, etheric Neptune, difficult to pin down!).

Meanwhile, quite a transformation can be observed via the Sabian Symbol for our SP Neptune in 1953 from 'taming lions' to: '28 Virgo' = "A Bald-headed Man Who Has Seized Power" (Is that you, Ike?). Dane Rudhyar gives this word picture a Keynote: "The sheer power of personality in times that call for decision." And adds that, "Everything bows to THE POWER OF THE WILL--divine, executively human, or Satanic" (An Astrological Mandala, DR; #ad).

And we should note that in our era, US natal Sun, once in Moon-ruled, patriotic Cancer, has progressed well into Pisces, often a shady, secretive sign with Jupiter-Neptune vibrations and this in part accounts for the prevalence of deception, veils, scandals, fraud, theft, and corruption now operative in US society and leadership much to the enjoyment of domestic and global criminal entities and networks of the anti-societal Neptune-Pluto persuasion. Thanks to these low-character jokers, knaves, and thieves, Neptune's undermining and sabotaging functions are starkly in evidence as we now are forced to see. However, since the 2020 Election and his Inauguration, President Joe Biden now expresses the compassionate side of Pisces, a vast improvement on behalf of the American people, imho!

So let's hone in on The Gaseous Giant with quoted text from expert astrologer Erin Sullivan's masterful book Retrograde Planets (#ad) concerning the topic of Neptune stationing by progression (slightly edited for clarity and noting that the Sun in a Political Astrology horoscope represents the leader, leadership, goal, ego:

When Neptune stations by progression in the chart, it means the Sun has progressed to such a point that its relationship with Neptune has undergone a subtle readjustment. It has been virtually stationary for years, anyway; the station is rarely marked by an event. {} Also, it might precipitate an unrealistic search {} for a teacher, whether that be a lover, guru, master or leader. {} relationships which fall short of the ideal can dissolve and disappear, leaving one in a state of suspension for some time while new evaluations of {} religious expression and spiritual resources are in progress.

The stationary-direct year will mark a time of 'surfacing', of changing one's perceptions of reality. The reality shift can be sudden, as the scales fall from one's eyes, or gradual, over a period of three or four years, while transits or other more sharply defined progressions bring the Neptune station into clearer focus. The progressed Sun's position in relation to natal planets will help define the situation, by indicating what issues the ego is grappling with."

(Imagine: the massive grappling egos of Washington DC! jc)

This may be a time when "an avenue for expressing 'newly discovered' psychological patterns" never before understood or expressed entered society through US leadership.

Erin adds that "reference points begin to blur at the edges, resulting in a soft-focus reality" and here yours truly suggests that, besides the obvious religious reference mentioned above, America's symbolic Neptunian shift to Rx motion has made it easy for success-at-any-cost politicians, religious figures, and the elite and corporate classes they serve to gaslight the American people by deceit, propaganda, and disinformation, as they work to confuse and diffuse every issue that calls for facing reality in order to find practical solutions - and this sorriness actually began way back in the 1950s!

A related post is the Discovery of Neptune Horoscope in September 1846. And curiously, our American Revolution planets will reach the Progressed New Moon phase conjunct a certain Cardinal World Point of Manifestation on July 8, 2022 which means that our nation is mired within the 'Dark of the Moon' phase now where shadowy Neptune can do its worst - and, with divine inspiration and intervention, its best.