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.
