The National Museum of the American Indian is my favorite museum of all time. Why? While it’s technically a museum about the heritage of people who were living on this land before contact, it’s really, truly a museum about how to live on earth, how to cherish the earth and how to live in harmony with it and humbly upon it.

“Tree hugger” is a pejorative term that shows modern man’s complete disconnection from the source of his life – earth. In The National Museum of the American Indian we see images of people accepting that they are dependent upon earth and cherishing it through love and ceremony. That we have to be taught to cherish air and water would be unbelievable to a visitor from another planet, yet it is true.

Consumer culture is attempting to make a certain kind of economic peace with the earth. Yet, much of our sustainability efforts are unmet and constantly challenged by the force of business. Because something can be recycled, for example, doesn’t mean that it is and our goals of sustainability are geared toward keeping up with consumerism rather finding sustainability for essential needs and conserving for future generations.

We’re cycling forward and backward in some interesting ways and with some ironies. For example, the western world is now embracing spiritual and mental practices of the Far East such as yoga and meditation. Is this backwards or forwards?

And technological advances may make us feel like we’re moving forward. But these same advances keep us busier than ever, disconnected from our physical world and allow wealth to be concentrated in a few individuals and organizations as in a feudal state. It this backwards or forwards?

July 11, 1843

In The Ohio Frontier: An Anthology of Early Writing, we learn the last Indians of Ohio, the Wyandots, left on July 11, 1843. This was in the middle of forced Indian migration starting with the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the Trail of Tears which forced southeastern tribes to migrate west of the Mississippi River.

Our citizens seemed to look upon the scene of their departure from among us with feelings of melancholy interest. To reflect that the last remnants of a powerful people, once the proud possessors of the soil we now occupy, were just leaving their beloved hunting grounds and the graves of their ancestors – that their council fires had gone out and their wigwams were deserted – was well calculated to awaken the liveliest of sympathies of the human heart. No one, we are sure, who felt such emotions, could refrain from breathing a devout aspiration to the “Great Spirit,” that he would guide and protect them on their journey, and carefully preserve them as a people after they shall have arrived at their new home in the far, far west.

The social and outer planet placements on that day: Jupiter 26 Aquarius; Saturn 22 Capricorn; Uranus 2 Aries; Neptune 20 Aquarius; Pluto 22 Aries.

Jupiter and Neptune were conjunct in Aquarius representing visions of the ideal society. Clearly “ideal” is in the eye of the beholder. Pluto and Saturn were square representing the aggressive social imperative. Uranus was in 2 Aries as it was in May 2011 which was during the time of the Arab Spring. Uranus in Aries is about self-awareness and self-assertion. Often this translates into standing up for one’s rights. Uranus in Aries gone bad is self-interest at the expense of others.

Aquarius and Aries are both futuristic signs – Aquarius has the ideas and Aries has the motivation. Together this indicates great scientific and technological advance. Neptune  into Aquarius again in the 2000s and was at 20 degrees 2007-2009; this round brought digital life and digital communities and new ideals based upon technology.

For the Native Americans, it was the Saturn in Capricorn that they experienced; they were not part of this ideal society and had to go. The United States has Pluto in 27 degrees of Capricorn which is evolutionary lessons regarding society, social structure and social consciousness. Transiting Pluto in Aries was square to natal Pluto and decided that forced removal rather than integration was needed.

July 11, 2020

The social and outer planet placements on this day: Jupiter 22 Capricorn; Saturn 29 Capricorn; Uranus 10 Taurus; Neptune 20 Pisces; Pluto 23 Capricorn.

There’s lots of Capricorn energy this year. Saturn moved into Aquarius at the end of March as we began social distancing due to coronavirus. Now it has gone retrograde and is back in Capricorn and, surprise, we are back to where we were in March with increased rates of coronavirus. Scientists and astrologers were aligned on this one . . .

If the evolutionary lesson of the United States involves society, social structure and social consciousness, the current energies are a wonderful opportunity for growth in these areas. Are you loving it?

The very foundation of United States social structure is being challenged. For example, in Columbus, Ohio a statue of Christopher Columbus was torn down in front of a college called Columbus State. The statue is gone but the city name remains. Who are you Columbus? Will your name change? Now that the statue is gone, how will you be different?

Pluto in Capricorn returning to its original placement in the chart of the United States suggests we can take a step up the evolutionary ladder to a higher manifestation of Capricorn. In its lowest form, Capricorn is hierarchical, authoritarian and rigid. In its highest form, it is about respect and the organization of society based on the rule of law to support respect. Class systems come from Capricorn which wants to create a “superior” and “inferior” way of being because of Capricorn’s greatest fear – failure.