The USA is a Cancer

July 1st through 11th, the sun moves through the second decan of Cancer, sweetly named: “A Walled Garden” By Austin Coppock. This decan hosts one of the most vigorously celebrated birthdays in the world: the birthday of the United States of America. Yep, the USA is a sensitive, grumpy, delicious crab.

The birth of the country/nation/state that is the USA is generally assumed to be July 4th, 1776 in Philadelphia, PA, when the declaration of independence was signed. Below is the natal chart of the USA. Very cool, but everybody keep in mind: that Sag rising is real suspect. The time 5:10pm, is a popular guest-imation springing from something 77 year old Thomas Jefferson wrote in his autobiography which basically just vaguely mentions that it was evening or late in the day when the declaration was signed. You can read about it more here.

Leaving aside the Sag rising though, there’s still a lot to think about here. Most notably, everyone should have the upcoming United States Pluto return on their radar. The US was born with Pluto at 27 degrees of Capricorn which means that we’re slowly building toward the United States’ Pluto return (which will be culminating in 2022) – a phenomenon that cannot be experienced in one human lifetime because it takes about 248 years.

Now, Cancer’s 2nd decan, The Walled Garden, is about protection of a fragile thing so that it can blossom. Images that come to mind here are the incubator, the greenhouse, the womb, and also the fortress. This is where we see the ‘tough shell’ part of the crab’s archetype appear. It’s kind of a cliche aphorism at this point to talk about how the sensitive cancer, like the crab, uses it’s hard outer shell to protect it from the mean outside world. But I think using the imagery of the second decan of Cancer, the Walled Garden, can be a rich resource to use when thinking through the raison d’être of the United States.

Perhaps especially in this moment, the nation seems to be obsessed with protective measures (or perhaps that is always the way the US has been? Or perhaps that is a quality that can be found in every nation state?). The border wall is a literal manifestation of the Cancerian need to create a hard outer shell, an insulated area where that which is fragile (white fragility?) can be protected. And we can see this in other literal manifestations as well. The white picket fence complex and gated communities and the US’s histories of segregation.

You know, the US was founded as a metaphorical Walled Garden, serving to protect a very specific group of people. Rich white men. And that really hasn’t ever changed. The US is doing exactly what it was created to do. When I see people with signs that say: “In Our America: We Believe… [you know the rest],” I wonder why they feel the need to try to rehabilitate the image of the America, and don’t instead say “We Believe… [all that good stuff], so Fuck the USA.”

If you also have such wonderings, or if you want to talk more about the astrology of the nation state, send me an email at mabelvautravers@gmail.com.