America is Having an Identity Crisis: Right on Time.
The stories behind the split in the American psyche.
Today’s Pisces New Moon opens us to the Collective Unconscious, the World Soul, which contains the hopes and dreams, fears and pain, of our collective journey of life here on Mother Earth. It is conjunct the asteroid Hygieia, the Goddess of Healing, offering us the grace of healing some soul wounds. So this deep dive into our collective soul can help heal us if we’re brave enough to take the dive.
Each degree in the zodiac has certain images that speak to the unfolding cycle. This is the Star Sparks image for this New Moon at 21* Pisces by Ellias Lonsdale
Pisces 21: Pagan fire worshipers dancing
The surge of free spirits cutting loose. The need and desire for what has been held back to be entirely unleashed, so that we can know what it really is. The impulse to overthrow whatever is arbitrary and restrictive in the community patterns. And the championing of the body’s wisdom in giving free expression to both what it has felt like to be so starkly enclosed and what we can become when we are granted our time and place for something vibrantly different to arise.
Yet a shadow tendency to keep hiding in safe containers, then calling forth another round of clearing the decks. A tremendously stubborn propensity for getting caught up in whatever is fascinatingly familiar and has been lived through for lifetimes.
This image for the Pisces New Moon energy reminds us that we are free human beings. We have free will and can stand up for freedom, despite the costs. Or if we’re too afraid to embrace the responsibility of being free, we’ll retreat back to what we think is safe. I can just imagine what some of our Christian nationalists would think of this image. It’s everything they’re afraid of – people living in their bodies without fear of sin, people loving without limits, people expressing their soul’s freedom rather than patriarchy’s purpose.
Watching the State of the Union address the other night, I saw this split in our country’s psyche. Half the room rooting for fundamental changes in how we take care of our own people and others; the other half stone-faced or yelling crass insults. And the Republican response looked and sounded like a scene from The Handmaiden’s Tale.
We’re in the midst of an Identity Crisis here in America – our third one, at least by my count. The first was when Americans broke away from England, having to decide if we were English colonists or new-made Americans. The second time was during the Civil War, when we broke apart because of different beliefs about power, freedom and equality. And now this third time comes as we begin to enter a new age of technological advancement that is going to take us to the stars and hopefully, heal our own world. Because of technology, we are truly one world and so we stand at the frontier of a new age for the whole world.
There are opposing views about what we need to do. One view looks back to the past (patriarchy not wanting to die) and one looks into an unknown future.
Of course we know that behind all three ‘identity crisis’ is the power of money and how it will manipulate people to maintain control. But this time, it feels like these manipulators know that they face our collective need to evolve, and so they’re no longer hiding what they’re doing. Whether it’s through wars, genocide, the manipulation of religious belief and fears for the future, the money interests are pushing right wing radicals to help them stay in power all over the world.
But because we live in a democratic republic, it really depends on ‘we the people’ to choose which future we want.
To meet this future, Americans have to choose who we are at this next national election. We have to embrace our identity as a country and a people. At the moment, it seems we get to choose between being white Christian nationalists or American citizens who stand up for the promise of a land of liberty, freedom and equality. So who is the Patriot?
In many ways, it’s time to complete the American Revolution and make this country a true democratic republic, welcoming all people and religions and learning that freedom comes with the responsibility to hold our leaders ‘feet to the fire’ if need be.
We really have to awaken from the stupor of being ‘consumers’ and shoulder our responsibilities as citizens. (Amazon addiction!) It’s time to grow up and change the way we live. My image of this aspect of America comes from a fairy tale – Pinocchio – the Disney version. I often think of that scene when Pinocchio lets himself be seduced by the tough guys into going to the amusement park, where all the other boys are playing, eating and acting out. The boys don’t even realize that they’re gradually turning into asses, asses that will be sold and abused. I see a lot of that in our political theater. Lots of boys and girls being asses. But I digress.
Because the world is changing so rapidly, people don’t know what to do and many are afraid. We face enormous challenges, which we have to face and which we can face if we have the will. But instead, those who are afraid gather their guns and their religion around them for safety and are deluded into thinking their god will come and ‘rapture’ them away from this troublesome world because they say they believe. But before that, they want to control the rest of us because they’ve projected their own evil onto this new world which is trying to find its balance with freedom and choice. All new births are messy. Things will even out in time.
This identity embodies a victim mentality that arrived on our shores with the first pilgrims. Many of the original settlers came to this new continent for ‘religious freedom’, escaping persecution. They felt they were victims, which is a big part of Christian mythology. But once victims gain power, they often victimize others, which they did to the Native people of this beautiful land and others around the world.
We see this with the MAGA movement today. Mr. MAGA is such a victim. That’s why he thinks he can be a bully. That so-called religious people follow him still leaves me shocked. Afraid, spiteful, not at all loving and forgiving Christians, but wearing the cloak of ‘righteousness’, these fearful people either act out their worst fantasies or else they give over their personal power to a leader, a church, an ideology which has past its due date.
This identity thrives on being afraid, on being a victim, on being entitled, on being Christian and on being male-oriented, even for women. That’s choice number one.
So what’s the other option for our collective identity?
If you’re not into victimhood, perhaps you’re into freedom.
Freedom entails responsibility to yourself and to others. Only when we free ourselves from our cultural expectations can we discover our own unique identity. Just who am I outside of my job and my family? What are my values, my dreams, my hopes for life? Answering these questions helps us know ourselves.
Carl Jung said that during the Aquarian Age, the archetypes would become conscious. The Aquarian Age has begun with us. Since we’ll be discovering and birthing our unique identities, first identify with archetypal categories: leader, mother, father, creator, artist, priest/ess, healer, teacher, protector, storyteller, musician, merchant, writer, explorer, mystic, visionary, peacemaker. Once you understand your true talents, you can inhabit that role in your own unique way.
These archetypal figures reshape who we’ve been told we are into the being that our soul incarnated to be. Patriarchy kept us so busy surviving on its terms that we didn’t have time to break free and live our authentic lives. Now we can. and aligning with the archetypal energies will help us grow into our power.
Once we figure that out, we can work on asking Who are You? as the hookah smoking caterpillar once asked Alice. Once we know ourselves, we aren’t afraid to recognize and honor others, and can assume a larger identity as a citizen not only of America but of the whole world.
We are the world. We are the children.
But identity has always been an issue for Americans. We’re all descended from immigrants. Our ancestors uprooted themselves from other lands, other cultures and another life to come to America. They abandoned the known for the unknown. In ancient cultures, this would have been a harsh punishment, being exiled from your people. But in the past 300 years, it has become a choice. A choice to start your own life over again.
It’s only been a few hundred years since most of our ancestors arrived in America, so our roots are planted in the shallow ground of our modern corporate culture, such as it is, which hasn’t the depth and richness of the cultures left behind. Whatever bits and pieces of those cultures we still retain, we don’t have the cultural integrity of a larger community to nurture them, as we did back in ‘the old country’ .
So we Americans are a patchwork of different stories, different customs, and different beliefs. As we grow, we are shaped by the American culture we do have. We are overtly given the opportunity to find our own identities, but often that opportunity is either shaped by media manipulation or restricted to what is useful to our corporate culture. Because immigrant families want to fit in, after a few generations their children have lost their connection to the old culture and become Americanized.
And of course, each new wave of immigrants was and is still being met with hostility and domination by those who arrived beforehand. This is just so stupid, brutal and hurtful, the acts of a bunch of teenage boys being bullies. So the victim mentality is passed on. Those WASP y guys, who were here first, knew how to put us all in our places.
Except we didn’t stay there. Because we believed in the myth of America as the land of liberty and opportunity, as the melting pot of the world. In fact, we are living the great experiment to see if different people with different backgrounds and beliefs can live together and create a more perfect union.
Isn’t that a glorious purpose. To learn to live in peace.
This also means Americans need to get our act together and find a way to live in peace and cooperation, so that other nations can see that it works. This is the choice we face in the coming years. Can we stand for freedom and equality, compassion and community?
Why is it the right time for us to have this identify crisis?
Let’s turn to astrology again. I love that the heavens reflect what’s going on down here on Earth! What an amazing cosmic message board from Spirit. Thank You!!!
To give you come background. There are a few transits (where planets are now) effecting the planets in America’s 4th of July chart. We do charts for nations and this is one of ours. In this chart, the planet Pluto was in the sign of Capricorn on July 4, 1776. We were founded by corporations and shaped by them. For the first time since the American Revolution, Pluto came back to the sign of Capricorn from 2008 – 2024. And it returned to its’ exact degree on February 24, 2022 – the day Putin invaded Ukraine. Coincidence or synchronicity or on purpose? Ukraine seems to be fighting a war for independence much like we did back in 1776.
The planet Pluto symbolizes the energies of death and rebirth – of the primal power of evolution. When a nation has its Pluto return, there is a needed death and rebirth. The old ways of living have to die so the nation can evolve. For America, it’s the Capricorn structures of finance, government, corporations, law, education, all of our cultural structures, that need to evolve. Pluto energetically brings up what is no longer viable so it can die and be replaced by new life. You just have to look at the past 16 years to see that this is so.
Just an aside: you do know that the right wing has its own astrologers. That Steve Bannon is an oculist and astrologer? They knew about this Pluto return and its push for rebirth. They gave their people a vision of being patriots and fighting for freedom. Unfortunately, in reality they were fighting for the wealthy, the corporations, the powerful instead of against them, as the American revolutionaries did. We broke free from king and corporations (we were founded by corporations – The East Indian Trading Company) during that original revolution. How twisted and interesting that these poor people couldn’t see the truth of who they were fighting for.
Another aspect in America’s birth chart is the asteroid Chiron in Aries, squaring (being challenged by) Pluto, pushing this energy to keep evolving. Chiron in Aries is a wound to our national identity. Just who are we Americans?
Chiron was the wise centaur who mentored the Greek heroes such as Jason, Hercules, Asklepios, Perseus and Achilles. He was raised by Apollo and was a healer. He is called the wounded healer because of two wounds: he was abandoned by both his parents and was later wounded by a poisoned arrow. Unfortunately, he couldn’t die because he was immortal. He finally sacrificed himself for his friend, Prometheus and was put up in the heavens in the constellation Sagittarius. And so he became the archetype of the Wounded Healer, for only the wounded can truly heal others.
So, what does Chiron have to do with our Identity Crisis? Aries is the sign of ‘who am I?’, the sign where we seek our identity. In 1776, Chiron was in Aries. In 2024, Chiron is again in Aries, asking all of us to find our personal identity and as Americans, our collective identity. Chiron also just conjuncted the North Node in Aries, the path of our present destiny and evolution. This is another indication that we have to discover our own unique identity. And for the third reason, we have the upcoming total solar eclipse on April 8th, covering much of the US, exactly conjunct Chiron in Aries in the sky as well as the Aries Chiron in America’s 4th of July birth chart.
All that goes to say, it’s time to look at the collective wounds that keep us stuck from evolving, because the energy is available now for our healing. In Aries, there can be rage and anger over what is happening in our world. Our work is to transform the anger into action. Not violent action, which is what the Christian right is advocating, but responsible action. We’re being called to take care of our world – because the powers that run the world certainly aren’t doing a very good job of it.
So perhaps the underlying story that will unite those of us who don’t subscribe to the Christian End Time story is the original American story that drove our ancestors to come to this beautiful land of ours. It is the story of a place where each of us are free and equal, where we have the freedom to live our lives as we choose, a land of creative opportunities, where liberty grants all of us the hope of ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’.
The other big transit to America’s birth chart this year is the planet Uranus is going to square (challenge) America’s 27* Aquarius Moon (symbolizing the people) in August before the election. This is a big wake-up call to our collective emotional body (Moon), a wake-up call for us to remember that being American means that we are the ones who determine our own fate and destiny. It’s time to make a soul commitment of our service to Mother Earth and contribute our best skills and talents to ‘be the change we’ve been waiting for’. The time is now.
We are the Grandparents of the Future.
The mundane action we have to take is to VOTE. And by the way, Corporations are NOT people so their money shouldn’t be able to buy them votes!
Yes, yes. I know our present government isn’t perfect. In many ways, far from it. But overturning old laws and instigating fresh controls on women isn’t working out so well for the far right. To make permanent changes, we need to be patient during transitions. The real changes are coming in 2025-26. If we have to work with the government we have until we vote in a government that will stand ‘by the people and for the people’ so be it.
Our choices matter now. Fear or Freedom.
Please let me know what you think.
Until next time.
Merry meet and merry part. And merry meet again!
Thank you, this is a wonderful description of what has been and continues to morph in America. I've been thinking about the solar eclipse that happened in 2017 and how it crossed the country from the northwest to the south east and how divided America has been since that time. And now this upcoming eclipse and how it crosses over the path of the lunar eclipse that happened in October (do I have this right?). What are the implications of this? I hope it has to do with bringing us together into a more United stand. The great experiment of America holds the opportunity for appreciating our diversity - which, in my view, is very creative and when we add love and curiosity into that diversity, we have something dynamic that can really thrive into the future. The Founding Fathers didn't want religion to be the driving force of America, but it wasn't perfect (thinking of the Salem witch trials). They gave us a template to move forward with. I feel that the Divine Feminine wave is gaining strength and love will prevail. I hold to that and do my best to embody that energy of love in my life. Thank you, Cathy!