Dear Friend and Reader:
One of astrology’s gifts is the ability to examine lives, plain and remarkable, and to see how their planets’ effect them. WhenВ history provides not one but two examples of remarkable lives, withВ both peopleВ born on the same day within hours of each other, you have a great opportunity to examine how planets work. Such is the case of two famous men born Feb. 12, 1809: В Charles Darwin, the father of modern biology born in Shrewsbury, England, В and Abraham Lincoln,В one of the four greatest Presidents of the United States, born in Hodgenville, Kentucky, US.
Charles Darwin took two decades toВ examine and analyze the findings on flora and faunaВ from his travelsВ on the HMS Beagle, a five-year journey which took him around the world from England toВ the Azores, Brazil, Galapagos, Falklands, Cape Town, Mauritius, Tahiti, New ZealandВ and Sydney. He used these findingsВ toВ solidify his theory of natural selectionВ in his book On the Origin of the Species, organizing how we view life on this earth to this day, and setting the foundation for modern day biology as we know it.
Abraham LincolnВ was inauguratedВ President of the United States one month after seven ofВ America’s 11 southern states seceeded from the union, forming the Confederate States of America. The ascendancy of Lincoln, who was pro-abolitionist, all but sealed the South’s determination to protect its economic interests of which slavery was a lynchpin. ByВ April, one month after he was inaugurated, the battle of Fort Sumter took place and four more states joined the secessionists. The American Civil War had begun.
AquariansВ take thought patterns, ideas and theories and crystallize them,В grounding them in fact.В Darwin and LincolnВ did a variation on that theme, by taking the existing crystallized structure and changing them by their work. ThroughoutВ their lives, they took on their respectiveВ worlds of science and politics,В challenging theВ substance of beliefs held largely in their day. For Darwin, it wasВ secular acceptance of Biblical creation myths that underscored natural science.В For Lincoln, it was the conventionalВ wisdom that underscoredВ the nation’s economic structureВ where slavery was a necessary evil. In both instances, these men with Saturn-Neptune conjunct in Sagittarius and Mercury-Neptune trined in water signsВ confronted the crytalline structuresВ that stood as obstacles before them in their respective fields and dissolved them.
From the time of its publication to the present day, Darwin’s On the Origin of the Species creates controversy because it provides scientific evidence that there is no single unifying factor, the force of creation or God Almighty that spewed forth the creatures of this planet in a biblical week.В It comes asВ no surprise that Darwin’s largest criticsВ were from religious circles.
As President while theВ nation was at war with itself,В В Lincoln held his Administration’sВ pro-abolitionist positionВ as casualties mounted on both sides. He promoted the 13th Amendment to the Constitution whichВ abolished slavery, and in the end won the war against the Confederacy,В holding together the Union, and becoming in effect America’s first Presidential human rights advocate.
Two hundred years later the conflict continues and there are still challenges to the work ofВ both men. Mr. Darwin’s theory on theВ origin of the speciesВ faces resistanceВ from 21st century religious fundamentalistsВ who believe in Intelligent Design and fight for removal of evolution from textbooks and curriculum. Through the efforts of Mr. Lincoln we saw anotherВ effect of his work 200 years later on election day, Nov. 4, 2008В with today alsoВ marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the NAACP.В But the union of the United States still needs to be perfected for all, including new immigrants and people of all gender persuasions. We somehow are not through with either of them, Mr. LincolnВ nor Mr. Darwin.
We still seem to need their example of plugging onward, staring down challenges andВ defeating them, relentlessly facing forward, toВ lightВ our way.
And by the way, happy birthday.
YoursВ & truly,
Fe Bongolan
San Francisco
B:
I can’t take that credit, it was eric who reminded me of the twin birthdays, and how they both aligned up. In Darwin’s chart however, it looked very much like a scholar and teacher while Lincoln’s looked more a leader, a president.
For me Aquarius will always mean some conformity, but conformity to my odd way of doing things. I might actually be more Capricornian than I appear, with Pisces, Cancer and Scorpio in the mix.
Ms Fe, always providing revelations and not-so-widely known info. The same-day birth dates for Lincoln and Darwin was news to me, so many thanks. See, my first thoughts of typical Aquarian behavior is “surprise” (sometimes shockingly) and “bucking the system”, along with “friendly” and “smart as all get out”. Until you and Eric explained that Aquarius is associated with crystalizing and grounding thought patterns, etc., I thought that was Capricorn’s domain. Still though, these two men bucked the system, going against the grain of popular and widely accepted attitudes. Kinda like you Fe!