In this year 2021 on President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday (February 12) there will be five planets transiting his birth sign of Aquarius. Saturn, Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, sun and will all be in this fixed air sign that’s focused on humanity, technology, futuristic ideas and shared ideals.

The day before, February 11, will also see the moon in Aquarius. For the astrology students out there, Lincoln’s sun was at 23 degrees of Aquarius so his solar return (aka “birthday”) is actually February 11. That’s because 2020 was a leap year and added a day to our calendar.

The sun was the only planet in Aquarius in Lincoln’s horoscope. While Aquarius can have its periods of detachment, I think Lincoln’s famous melancholy stemmed from Capricorn moon (27 degrees), Saturn conjunct Neptune in Sagittarius and Mercury conjunct Pluto in Pisces.

Moon in Capricorn is challenging because it controls its emotions and often feels depressed. Neptune is where we feel the pull of spirituality and with Saturn conjunct the message is, “Sorry, you can’t go there.” Pluto (like Neptune) is generational so in Pisces reflects a more global sense of spiritual longing and loneliness from being an earth-bound physical entity.

What’s interesting about Lincoln’s horoscope is that his sun at 23 degrees of Aquarius is near the United States’ moon at 26 degrees of that sign and his moon at 27 degrees of Capricorn is the exact degree of the United States’ Pluto in Capricorn. Lincoln’s sun and moon were tied up with the evolutionary path of the United States.

What is that path?

Moon in Aquarius is hyper rational, detached, focused on shared ideals. Aquarius cares about people from an idealistic standpoint but isn’t warm and fuzzy with them personally. However, the United Status sun in Cancer is emotional with a focus on family and belonging. The emotional sun doesn’t aspect well to the rational moon. This can describe clearly how a nation can have a constitution that protects the individual while at the same time holding people in slavery. Air signs are best at “rationalizing” behavior.

Pluto’s role is evolution. In Capricorn, evolution concerns social structure, authority, control and hierarchy. Transiting Pluto is now in that sign and in a couple years the United States will have its “Pluto return” where it returns to 27 degrees of Capricorn after 248 years.

In case you haven’t noticed, the United States is going through great changes. Evolution as we understand it connotes progress but really evolution is about adaption. You can adapt to heaven or adapt to hell. While humans on one hand seem to be rooted in bedrock belief systems, on the other they are amazingly adaptable and malleable.

Let’s see where evolution takes us.

Revolution without a cause

During the end of the term of the 45th president, there were fears of civil war in the United States. That’s quite funny to me because for all of the internal conflict that has been occurring in the last four years, there is no clear aim, no clear purpose, and no agglutinating principle.

To storm the capitol in a shaman outfit and then demand vegan dinner in jail is hardly the material of revolutionaries. For those that carried a confederate flag – are you trying to secede? For the woman stealing a laptop to sell to Russia I ask, was the storming of the capitol to deliver our country to a foreign power?

While the short-term goal was to prevent a new president from taking office, there is no clear long-term conceptual belief (Aquarius) that drives the desire to keep the 45th president in office. The cult of personality has focused on those that give the appearance of strength, but Capricorn at its worst is authoritarian and to struggle for authoritarianism is self-destructive unless you are in authority.

Party politics could be blamed as it has turned politics into the simple sport of us and them. Yet the politicians also appear locked in the inconsistencies and incongruities of their consituents.

“Liberty, equality, fraternity,” was the slogan of the 18th century French revolution. Twentieth century revolutions in Russia, China and Cuba focused on expelling foreign powers and taking the wealth of the minority and redistributing it to the majority. While these “revolutions” may have had misguided and failed goals, they did have goals. And over time, in China at least, you could argue there were great improvements in the standard of living of the masses over time.

What’s the slogan of the United States insurrection?

There’s no slogan because there’s no movement. However this is still danger because of this very thing – social media provides a platform to express which creates a sense of empowerment while the actual social infrastructure becomes more and more rigid. The result is unorganized chaos. Insurrectionists were identified through their own photos but will probably foster the facial recognition being used in China to control masses.

What’s the difference between a gang and a movement?

Size might be said to differentiate. Also, a gang creates a sense of emotional loyalty through shared criminal responsibility. A movement creates a sense of intellectual loyalty through shared ideals. The insurrection was more like a gang and therefore probably not the inception of Civil War. But it definitely is the inception of civil chaos.

The Ghost of Lincoln

Many past United States presidents are probably “rolling in their graves” right now wondering what happened and wishing they could have understood the technology of the 21st century with its ability to influence behavior. But, then, had they known they might have envisioned a world with more knowledge and wisdom rather than more trivia and media trash.

Eisenhower warned against the military industrial establishment to no avail. Had technology been more advanced during his presidency, he might have added to beware of the media conglomerates.

The transits of February 11 – 12 are so intense after the energy of the last several years that we might very well see Lincoln’s ghost hovering about Washington DC. And if Lincoln should decide to visit his home state of Illinois, we may very well see him passing through Ohio.

When I told the cats to be on the lookout, they were excited.

“How will we recognize him?” they asked.

“Look for a melancholy, studious man with a long face and long beard. I don’t know if ghosts wear tall top hats but don’t be surprised if you see one.”

They started making mental notes.

“Oh,” I added, “if he’s carrying a Confederate flag that’s Jefferson Davis, not Abraham Lincoln. Don’t let their similar appearances fool you.”

“Will he be singing rap?”

“No,” I answered. “I thought we discussed this in March. That’s Alexander Hamilton.”