Created under Neptune in Aries, the National Rifle Association was an organization designed to teach rural gun marksmanship to city dwellers. The Confederate South, with only one ironworks, engaged in a bloody war that dragged on four years. Some Union officers, seeing how the disparity in gun marksmanship favored the South, believed the war dragged on because the Union soldiers didn’t know how to shoot. They created the NRA to teach city dwellers marksmanship.
The NRA is now one hundred and fifty-one years old and approaching it’s Neptune Return. And what a Neptune, at 21° Aries it has the Sabian symbol “a pugalist enters the ring”. The NRA was not created to be a shrinking violet. It’s north node is conjunct America’s Gemini Mars and it has a Sagittarius south node. Sagittarius is the zodiac sign of the fast moving centaur carrying his bow. A marksman focused on America’s martial strength. It also has an Aquarius Moon, a membership of free people. It’s Capricorn Saturn conjunct Mars indicates a disciplined warrior. Out of the Neptunian mists, an organized armed force of free people emerges, produced by America’s martial energy. China’s People’s Liberation Army has 2 million active personnel. Although the NRA is not a military force, it has 5 million dues paying members. America’s Gemini Mars consists of several parts but among America’s martial expression are the words of the Second Amendment. Those words have produced its own defense force.
In 1976, the NRA was losing its way. The leadership was increasingly at odds with its membership and the next generation of leaders. Fearing the loss of fundraising from big donors, in secret, it had joined forces with The Oram Group to build and plot a retreat to a new NRA headquarters and Outdoor Center in America’s west. The Oram Group specialized in fundraising and public relations for liberal social causes such as Planned Parenthood, and the NAACP Legal Fund among others. This group advised them to sell their Arlington Headquarters and retreat from Washington, D.C. and further tried to subvert their original mission of training Americans the skills needed to succeed at war by literally sending them off to the wilderness. As part of this go along to get along strategy, the NRA leadership attacked it’s own staffers by laying off those that became known as the Federation for the NRA. This group wanted the NRA to be stronger and defend the Second Amendment.
The Attack horoscope shows the NRA leadership, known as the Old Guard, were concerned with the material resources of the organization not the mission. It has a Taurus south node and retrograde Taurus Jupiter. Although a cost savings measure, they chose to attack the staff who best embodied the new Sagittarius Neptune ideal. This new ideal was conjunct America’s Ascendant. The Leo Saturn is squared up against the Scorpio Sun. The elite Old Guard blocking the Federation. The Old Guard wanted to transform the NRA away from its mission of producing marksmen to a new elite mission of Tauran conservation and hunting. The Federation wanted to stop gun control legislation, support the second amendment and expand gun rights.
At the May 21, 1977 annual meeting in Cincinnati, the Federation for the NRA and the lifetime members responded by clearing away the Old Guard and installing new leadership. There in the Revolt horoscope, the 0° Gemini Sun shows that the moment had come to move away from Taurus and focus instead on the words of the Second Amendment. The Revolt Cancer Moon represents the lifetime members and they are supporting America’s Cancer Sun. The Federation members donned their blaze orange hunting hats at 7 pm in preparation for the meeting to begin at 7:30 pm. The retrograde Scorpio Uranus, the planet of revolution, is conjunct the Ascendant. The Gemini Sun is in the 7th house of laws. This revolution was accomplished by rewriting the organization’s bylaws putting the power not in the hands of the board who had shown they were beholden to outside influence and outside money but in the hands of the regular Americans who held lifetime memberships.
The place of this revolt holds a special meaning. The city of Cincinnati honors an ancient Roman hero. Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus twice saved the Roman republic without holding dictatorial power for a day longer than necessary. For the Roman republic, his hands were the safest place to hold the power of the republic.
America’s own Cincinnatus, George Washington, held a special connection to this event. His natal chart asteroid Cincinnati opposes America’s Gemini Mars. George Washington, the protector of American liberty, refused a crown and relinquished presidential power after defeating the most powerful monarch in the world. His safe hands form the Sagittarius south node of the NRA. This idea is so meaningful that their slogan is “Freedom’s safest place”. This slogan would be described in astrology as a Sagittarius (freedom) asteroid Cincinnati (safe hands). The Revolt horoscope, America’s Sibly horoscope and George Washington himself all have a Sagittarius asteroid Cincinnati. Freedom’s safest place. When the Old Guard attacked the Federation, they unleashed one of the most powerful and transformative moments for America’s Constitution since its inception. The expansion of an old vision.
It may be laid down, as a primary position, and the basis of our system, that every citizen who enjoys the protection of a free government, owes not only a proportion of his property, but even of his personal services to the defence of it, and consequently that the Citizens of America (with a few legal and official exceptions) from 18 to 50 Years of Age should be borne on the Militia Rolls, provided with uniform Arms, and so far accustomed to the use of them, that the Total strength of the Country might be called forth at Short Notice on any very interesting Emergency.”
George Washington, letter to Alexander Hamilton May 2, 1783
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” It can be no clearer than George Washington’s words to Alexander Hamilton that the Second Amendment envisaged that every American citizen from 18 to 50 should be issued a gun and regularly train for the defense of the free state. Indeed, the people’s right to bear arms is the basis of the Constitutional system. The Swiss follow this system today.
This energy is on display in Ukraine. A militia of citizens who believe in freedom and love their country against one of the largest conventional militaries in the world is winning with small arms. Javelins are carried by a single man. Rifleman against tanks and bombs. Freedom fighters against soldiers. They aren’t the only example in the past twelve months. Intrangient goat herders who believe in a religious creed wore down the greatest nation on earth and won with small arms, belief and determination. Zelenskyy was born just a little over half a year after the Revolt under the rays of the Sagittarius Neptune. He eloquently appeals for weapons to defend freedom. Those with a Sagittarius Neptune carry the ideal of a person armed and ready to defend freedom or their beliefs. We become our ideals.
Synastry Chart of George Washington and the Sibly Horoscope of the United States of America
The transiting Pisces Neptune represents its last challenge to America’s Mars before the NRA is reenergized by its own Neptune Return. In New York on March 2, 2022, Attorney General Letitia James was blocked from her attempt to dissolve the NRA. The rumors of the NRA’s death have been greatly exaggerated. What will be next? The NRA was created under an Aries Neptune. Could George Washington’s vision be realized, that every American citizen, whether man or woman, be trained and issued their own firearm? Already we see how American and European weakness invites war. Ukrainians are fighting and dying for freedom as this is written. China is making aggressive moves toward Taiwan. North Korea has debuted a ballistic missile and Iran attacks an American consulate in Iraq as President Biden supplicates himself for a deal that allows the Russians to build the necessary infrastructure for Iran so they can have a nuclear weapon in two years. It is Piscean weakness that brings forth Aries. Arian strength that brings forth Taurus prosperity. The wheel turns.