Gun violence in America occurs with horrifying regularity and for off-shore observers it’s an inexplicable cultural phenomenon.
Mass shootings occur, people get slaughtered, the grief is unbearable, the experts debate, gun owners defend their rights to own guns and research organizations – Pew Research centre, FBI, the Gun Violence Archive and Mother Jones – gather statistics.
Here are some
The rate of murder or manslaughter by firearm in America is the highest in the developed world with more than 11,000 shooting deaths in 2016.
Since December 2012 when a gunman walked into the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut, and killed 20 children, six adults and himself, there have been more than 1,600 hundred mass shootings in America. (A mass shooting is commonly defined as an indiscriminate rampage involving four or more victims.)
In 2019, as at August 4, there have been 33,114 gun violence incidents, 253 mass shootings and 8,758 deaths.
Most gun deaths – around 23,000 per year – are suicides and on average there’s about one mass shooting per day.
America has the highest gun ownership in the world with 390 million guns. Everyone, of course, doesn’t own a gun but one-third of the over-50s say they do and about one in five gun owners say they belong to the National Rifle Association (NRA) and in 2017 it spent $5.12 million lobbying government to influence gun policy.
Anger, hate and aggression
Human nature expresses ten dynamic urges.
There’s a tender caring urge that nurtures the young, weak and helpless; a smart and clever intellectual urge that learns, educates and communicates; a fun loving social urge that sings and dances and hangs out with friends; a benevolent and tolerant goodwill urge that ignores difference and forgives and forgets; and a security urge that just wants to shop and dance in safety without getting attacked or shot.
Then there’s this urge that’s intent on fighting and attacking enemies. It’s very forceful, very impulsive, very destructive and naturally inclined to resolve a conflict by inflicting harm. And this explosive urge and its associated states of feeling – anger, rage, hostility, hate and spitefulness – has its correspondence in the sky.
It’s the planet Mars and the astral energy it transmits expresses in life as aggression; and every human soul has an aggressive urge.
America’s birth chart
Chart data is: July 4, 1776; 12.14am LMT, Philadelphia (74W08, 39N57)
The chart’s astrodyne report
In mundane-matters Mars is the planet of energy, enterprise, manufacturing, war, soldiers, construction, destruction, police officers, fires, firemen, strife, guns, violence, alcohol, gambling, doctors and surgeons. And Mars – the planet of guns and gun violence – dominates America’s birth chart.
With Mars in house 1 (the people) Americans have easy access to guns and America is one of the few countries in which the right to bear arms is constitutionally protected. So it’s the only chart that’s needed to explain America’s gun violence problem; and you could say after reading the stats that America is infected with a gun violence disease.
And as Mars progresses through the houses of the chart the gun violence directly impacts the life-matters they rule.
Civil war and a great depression
In April 1858 Mars progressed to house 4 – the homeland. The country was divided – on June 16, 1858 Abraham Lincoln gave his famous ‘A house Divided Speech’ – and on April 12, 1861 the American Civil War began.
America was at war with itself. More than three million men fought and 620,000 – two percent of the population – died.
And after the violent destruction Mars set about rebuilding the nation.
Then in July 1910 Mars progressed to house 5 and it wasn’t long before the roaring 20’s roared in. Wild speculation resulted in a great depression and then the rebuilding of the country’s economy aided by escapist Hollywood entertainment and lots of cowboy movies with lots of shooting.
House 5 rules children, teenagers, schools, entertainment, sport and entertainment venues and now the gun violence is directly impacting these people, environments and life-matters. There’s a big appetite for violent movies and violent video games.
In April 2007 progressed Mars turned retrograde so its influence on these life-matters will be prolonged. Mars will be there till September 2158 – another 140 years – by which time, it is hoped, the gun and gun violence problem has been solved.
Mars and America
Mars is the planet of aggressive energy and when this explosive energy spirals out of control bad things happen. It either builds and constructs or demolishes and destroys and America’s narrative is a cycle of construction and destruction. Mars has its signature on every page of America’s story.
The birth chart predispositions that Mars maps only develop into social or other problems when Mars is activated by major progression: And progressed Mars in house 5 is currently (August 2019) trine birth chart Moon; and progressed Mercury is trine, and progressed ascendant is parallel, birth chart Mars.
In 2019 the focus is on the destruction that gun violence inflicts and in the age of Donald Trump the finger of blame is pointed at hate.
With progressed Mars in house 5 there are school shootings, mass shootings at entertainment venues, millions of children playing violent video games and violent movies.
America has a gun and gun violence problem and whatever progress is made to resolve the matter will involve strife, initiative, aggressive action and the overcoming of powerful resistance.
The situation is likely to be a political issue in the 2020 presidential election and could reach a crisis point in 2021 when progressed Midheaven is conjunction progressed Mars.
But gun violence is only one chapter in America’s story. Mars represents creative energy, enterprise, resilience and forceful action and America has attained its status as the world’s economic and military power house all because of that dominant Mars in house 1 of its birth chart.
Astrology for Aquarius – sharing our knowledge
