{"id":21874,"date":"2010-01-28T14:38:39","date_gmt":"2010-01-28T19:38:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=21874"},"modified":"2010-01-28T15:17:25","modified_gmt":"2010-01-28T20:17:25","slug":"howard-zinn-chiron-incarnate-astrology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/daily-astrology\/howard-zinn-chiron-incarnate-astrology\/","title":{"rendered":"Howard Zinn, Chiron Incarnate"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Noon chart for Howard Zinn. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s always interesting when you look at someone’s chart for the first time and they have exactly the kind of chart you would imagine. Howard Zinn, who told us the story of the United States from the viewpoint of people, not the power establishment, died yesterday at age 87. The beloved author, speaker and former professor at Boston University was a cult hero among generation after generation of the American left.<\/p>\n

He lived long enough to experience his third Saturn return — well, he was one degree shy of exact, but that’s good enough for Saturn.<\/p>\n

When looking at the chart of a notable person, or anyone for that matter, the first question to ask is: how is this chart a picture of the person? With Zinn, the aspects leap out: a chart weighted in Virgo and Libra, bringing a quest for both detail and social justice. But it’s one aspect — Jupiter opposite Chirion — that reveals that this is really the man’s chart.<\/p>\n

Chiron among all the planets bestows a maverick spirit: the impetus to be different, as a matter of basic necessity. Yet put Chiron in in aspect to Jupiter and you focus those rays of warrior wisdom into something tapped into a vast database of worldly knowledge.<\/p>\n

This aspect shows up with a crusading political spirit, sensitivity and intellectual prowess. We also find it in the charts of former Black Panther Bobby Seale, Patric Swayze, Jonathan Livingson Seagull<\/em> author Richard Bach and M*A*S*H actor Alan Alda. One of the best books on feminism, ever, was written by Simone de Beauvoir, who also had Jupiter opposite Chiron.<\/p>\n

Zinn shared a birthday with one of my favorite social crusaders, Betty Dodson<\/strong><\/a>. In The Secret Language of Birthdays<\/em>, they are born “The Day of Astute Examination.” Those born this day “have the urge to untangle the mysteries that capture their interest. All the dark, misunderstood or uncharted areas of human knowledge attract them,” the authors say. “Their never-ending quest for information and details which can help them make sense of life and enrich their world takes them far and wide.” Indeed.<\/p>\n

Zinn had help from many other aspects: his quadruple conjunction in Libra, for example: Saturn, Jupiter, Venus and Pallas Athene, but Chiron in Aries pulled that grouping into sharp focus. And his Jupiter-Chiron is in a square to Pluto, which is alone enough to keep someone fired up for 87 years.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Zinn was radicalized by his experiences in warfare. He eagerly joined the Army Air Force during World War II to fight fascism, and he bombed targets in Berlin, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. He was a second lieutenant, the basic commission for a college educated officer. “Zinn’s later anti-war stance was, in part, informed by his own experiences in the military. In April, 1945, he participated in one of the first military uses of napalm, which took place in Royan, France,” Wikipedia tells us.<\/p>\n

“The bombings were aimed at German soldiers who were, in Zinn’s words, hiding and waiting out the closing days of the war. The attacks killed not only the German soldiers but also French civilians, facts Zinn uncovered nine years after the bombings when he visited Royan to examine documents and interview residents. In his books, The Politics of History and The Zinn Reader, he described how the bombing was ordered at the war’s end by decision-makers most probably motivated by the desire for career advancement rather than for legitimate military objectives.”<\/p>\n

I asked my friend Steve Bergstein, a civil rights lawyer who has read Zinn’s work since he was a college student, to offer some commentary to put the author’s life in perspective. Here is what he said:<\/p>\n

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Howard Zinn. Photo by Red Diaz.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“A People’s History of the United States<\/em> was the first history book to really look at American history from the point of view of the rest of us, those who are not rich and did not fight and win the wars. Zinn was a different kind of historian: looking at history from the angles that other historians had ignored. The history of protest movements, uprisings and rebellions which shaped the history of this country and truly gave us our freedoms. Zinn would point out that all our freedoms were hard-fought after struggle. His books and speeches focused on that. He was also a great writer – very clear and lucid, not turgid and boring.<\/p>\n

“I saw him speak at Vassar College about 10 years ago. The place was packed to the gills. Hundreds of people, including students, came early to get a good seat. I was surprised that this genius and highly-regarded academic had such a Brooklyn accent. He sounded like our uncle Howard. But boy did he command the audience! Then after the speech, he walked to the student union building as people followed him and continued asking him questions across the concourse. When he got the student union building, probably several hundred of us waited in line for his autograph. I got him to sign his autobiography.<\/p>\n

“He was a role model in every way. He worked his way through college and stayed completely true to his values, speaking up when no one wanted to ask questions about the Vietnam War and civil rights and leading the pack as the 1950’s turned into the 1960’s and the 1970’s. He is one of the reasons why we live in a democratic society today. I will defend that statement to anyone, anywhere, anytime.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s always interesting when you look at someone’s chart for the first time and they have exactly the kind of chart you would imagine. Howard Zinn, who told us the story of the United States from the viewpoint of people, not the power establishment, died yesterday at age 87. The beloved author, speaker and former … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21874"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21874\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}