“…one of the biggest myths — I would say the biggest myth — about the founding of the United States is that our founders built a democracy. Right? That’s the story even on the left. That’s the story that we want to tell. And that’s only half-true, because they also built an empire.”
— Rebecca Nagle, award-winning Cherokee author and journalist, speaking on Democracy Now! June 30, 2026
This past Tuesday, June 30, I experienced one of those moments when the themes of an astrological aspect come alive unexpectedly. Often this happens through my own experience but other times the synchronicity comes through hearing a news story. Tuesday was the latter type.
I was driving in the car and caught part of an interview on Democracy Now! on a local radio station, in which Cherokee activist and journalist Rebecca Nagle was discussing the anger with indigenous populations and racist slurs that are actually written into the Declaration of Independence. She also describes how the current abuses of governmental power in the US are actually not an aberration from “what America is,” but are actually part of this country’s “split personality” structure, in which “democracy” and “empire” share space.
Here’s the link to the interview so you can listen, watch, or read the full transcript (perhaps even before you read the rest of this piece). The quote at the top of this post comes directly from that interview. As I listened, it hit me:
What a great representation of Jupiter, which had just entered Leo that morning (at 1:52 am EDT June 30) immediately squaring Chiron, which entered the first degree of Taurus June 19 and will stay there all summer. And I felt resonance and reverberations with how close this was occurring to the big 250th anniversary celebrations here in the US this July 4th.
Rather than trying to craft this like a true essay (I am working on this days later than intended, and time is rushing quickly) I am going to list and loosely connect some themes relating to the astro-ingredients, followed by some thoughts captured roughly how they popped into my mind. Hopefully you’ll be able to trace the treads — feel free to ask questions or add your own thematic connections. Ok, so:
Jupiter can express in a variety of basic, positive, and negative ways, depending on circumstances, such as:
Aspiration
Understanding
Orthodoxy
Optimism
Idealism
Extravagance
Confidence – and Overconfidence
Fanaticism
Bigotry
…to name just a few of what feel the most applicable here.
Leo, ruled by the Sun, is the sign of kings and royalty. And while Leo can be courage, compassion, loyalty, and heart-based affection, Leo can also be excess pride, and can “[give authority] with one hand and take it away with the other,” to quote Isabel Hickey.
Check the Democracy Now! story for a fuller discussion of that dynamic in relation to the Declaration of Independence. Here, it’s mainly that “kings and royalty” theme that I’m focused on — in the sense of having an assumed “right” to power over many. (Monarchies and empires are not strictly synonymous, and the usage of those terms has evolved over history, but they have sometimes overlapped and they’re feeling close enough to me for astro-symbolism’s sake here.)
Some of Chiron’s themes that feel most relevant:
Wounding
Deep healing processes
Raising and focusing awareness
Transitions and changes coming from new awareness of previously unseen patterns (including patterns of injury) — and awareness of patterns coming into focus due to transitions and changes
Teaching and teachers
Learning by investigating direct experience
Something to add to the mix for you to mull: my original astrology mentor, Eric Francis Coppolino, once wrote this caveat in a piece about Chiron, to help readers orient on discerning the lesson of a Chirotic event from its pain:
“If, under the influence of a Chiron transit and its accompanying events, we investigate these things, we might confuse the shadow material that emerges with Chiron itself, and not view Chiron as the source or metaphor for the awareness that is helping us be free” (emphasis his).
Finally, Taurus, ruled by Venus, is the sign of the physical body — perhaps one of the first things we recognize as truly “our own” — and the body’s senses. Taurus brings us additional themes of possessions and possessiveness, material wealth, value and values, the literal land, and slow assimilation of — or outright resistance to — changes.
So…
There I was in the car Tuesday with glimmers of these themes flitting in and out, swirling and coalescing with no place to land while I drove. I came home and dashed off the ideas that follow (slightly edited for clarity):
Declaration of Independence / Democracy Now! segment…Chiron in Taurus, in one possible reading, especially receiving this square from Jupiter in Leo so close to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration’s writing, stands in for the land itself and the wounds to this land inherent in the “necessary” violence of revolution and rebellion and the founding of a new nation — and also for the bodies of the indigenous inhabitants and original stewards (not owners!) of this land…
…how we, collectively and especially as represented by our government — continue to repeat the inherent/”mortal”/persistent/original wounding that is baked into our country’s identity and origin story; the ways our government has leaned into its “empire side” hiding in plain sight. Over and over through our history, and so glaringly in recent years, as Rebecca Nagle pointed out…
…the tension between the seemingly “unheal-able-ness” of that, since we cannot undo what has been done, and the “proud” idea of our sovereignty, courage, etc., as a nation that gets celebrated… and how do you reconcile the irreconcilable?
This image of empire & democracy existing uneasily within the USA’s identity…the expansive light and energy of Jupiter in the Sun’s sign at cross-purposes with our collective need/ability to acknowledge the wounding inherent in this land (Chiron in Taurus) and the nation on this land that we’re commemorating…
…the inherent tension between a democracy built partially on (or in tandem with) an empire (Leo! Jupiter — king of the gods — in Leo!)… and how this inherent tension of juxtaposition in our past and present is rather like the inherent tension of a square in astrology. Squares represent internal tension we can only resolve or reconcile by taking positive action. And the big questions:
Do we attempt to reconcile the tension by taking reflective, corrective action and broadening our story of becoming, reframing it to include the biggest pain points, working through it all?
Do we allow ourselves to become more aware, and to use that awareness and understanding as one of our most potent gifts to ourselves as a nation: a teacher pointing us in the direction of growth and progress toward a governing structure and philosophy meant to include and empower all its citizens?
Or do we keep ignoring, repressing, doubling-down and then wondering why this country seems to be coming apart at the seams?
The 250th birthday of the US is…complicated…for many of us in this country this year. You may be celebrating, grieving, feeling rather confused, conflicted, or detached from it all, too focused on other things to give this milestone much attention, or something else entirely (international readers, I’d be curious to hear if you see any of these themes playing out where you are in some other way).
Wherever you fall on that spectrum, may you find your own awareness focused on something you can learn from, heal, grow with, and integrate for your highest good and ongoing becoming.
With love,
Amanda
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