American Revolutionary

Who can say there is no life after death when we see such a dramatic example of it with the successful opening of the Broadway musical Hamilton? The show opened off-Broadway at The Public Theater in January, in time for Hamilton’s 260th birthday (January 11, 1755). (1)

Alexander Hamilton

January 11, 1755 (rectified by Regulus, LLC (see Footnotes 1 & 3)
1:23:37 p.m. LMT
Charlestown, Saint Kitts-Nevis
62w37 17n08 (Whole sign houses, Mean node)

After a sold-out run at the Public, Hamilton opened on Broadway on August 6th to rave reviews, e.g.: “Yes, it really is that good,” was the opening line from the New York Times reviewer, Ben Brantley.

My enthusiasm for Hamilton went into full-blown rapture, as did Lin-Manuel Miranda’s, the composer and star of Hamilton, while reading Ron Chernow’s award-winning biography Alexander Hamilton (2004). Miranda read Chernow’s biography while on vacation in Mexico in 2008. Jody Rosen, in a recent article on the musical, quotes the composer: “‘I was immediately captivated,’ Miranda says. ‘He’s an inspirational figure to me. And an aspirational one.'” She further writes: “In Hamilton, he saw a figure he recognized: a word-drunk firebrand with untrammeled ambition, raw talent, an outsize ego and a lust for combat, verbal and otherwise. Miranda saw a rapper.” (2)

Collaborating with Chernow, composer Stephen Sondheim and the hip-hop group the Roots, Miranda has brought Colonel Hamilton to life and to Broadway.

As an astrologer, my curiosity was aroused — why at this moment in time is there such a dramatic renewal of his life? Using a birth chart rectified by the masterful Regulus Astrology, LLC, with permission, I looked into the progressions and transits of opening night to Colonel Hamilton’s birth chart. (3)

Alexander Hamilton: natal, progressed and transits

Inner wheel: Hamilton natal; middle: Hamilton, progressed to Aug. 6, 2015: outer: transits to Broadway opening, Aug. 6, 2015, 8:00 p.m., Manhattan, NY

At the play’s opening, the exalted Moon in sustainable (and prosperous) Taurus bodes well for the show’s success — the Moon exactly squares the 8 p.m. curtain-up Ascendant at 13°46′ Aquarius, and forms a trine to transiting Pluto. As the Moon moves through Taurus she meets the Sun, Venus, Mercury in Leo by square, then opposes Saturn in Scorpio, just before meeting Jupiter in the 29th degree of Leo, the degree of Regulus, the king-maker.

The connections between the transiting planets and Hamilton’s progressed chart are amazing. The Moon at 13° Taurus on opening night was at the midpoint of the Colonel’s Taurus Ascendant (19°53′) and his Part of Fortune (9°48′ Taurus).  This transiting Moon is exactly trine Hamilton’s progressed Ascendant, as transiting Pluto, the planet of regeneration, sits on the progressed Ascendant in its retrograde phase. The natal Moon in Hamilton’s chart is 11°12′ Capricorn opposite his progressed Moon at 13° Cancer, sextiling opening night Moon (13° Taurus) and sitting on the progressed Descendant at 13° Cancer — just coming above the horizon to be noticed — and just past a sextile to his progressed Uranus at 12°25′ Pisces. I remember what old-time astrologer Sophia Mason always said — it is the Moon that times things. She is the one you have to wait for.  This is probably particularly true here, as the Moon is the exalted ruler of Hamilton’s natal Taurus rising and plays a big role in his life.

Transiting Uranus at 20° Aries is squaring natal Saturn/Sun at 20°- 21° Capricorn, awakening the sleeping giant and his legacy, and opposing the progressed Part of Fortune at 21° Libra. Taurus, ruled by Venus, is retrograde at 25° Capricorn in the natal chart. Opening night has Venus again retrograde at 27° Leo. Progressed Venus is 28° Virgo square his natal Mars at 29° Sagittarius.  (It would take additional research to connect the dots on the reactivation of the retrograde Venus.)

Transiting Neptune at 9°04′ Pisces is transiting over the Colonel’s natal Uranus at 8°41′ Pisces. He is being brought alive in a hip-hop, rap, rhythmic, innovative and historically accurate musical. These young artists are changing the language of musicals just as Hamilton and his colleagues changed history.  The transiting outer planets all have a role as well — Pluto and Uranus are in a waxing square, the same waxing square that Hamilton was born under.

For readers who follow symmetrical astrology, there is an emphasis on the Aries point. Progressed Jupiter has crossed into 0°31′ Libra, on the Aries point, which, in the natal chart, has Mars (29°06′ Sagittarius) and the following midpoints (on the 45° dial): Sun/Uranus, Moon/Jupiter, Asc/Part of Fortune, Asc/Mc, and Mercury/Mars. Over the past seven years, as Miranda was working on this project, Hamilton’s progressed Sun (now at 5°46′ Libra) first hit his natal Mars at 29°06′ Sagittarius and then activated his Aries point.

We need to look at the nodes. Colonel Hamilton’s natal Jupiter is retrograde at 18°32′ Virgo. His progressed North Node is at 19° Virgo heading back to the natal Jupiter. And probably most surprising of all — although not to astrologers — Colonel Hamilton is having a nodal return. The (mean) natal node is 3°01′ Libra and the transiting node on the opening night on Broadway was 3°23′ Libra. This would be another research project — looking at all the times this has happened before every 18 years and perhaps making connections between current events and Hamilton’s role in those events.

Who says you cannot rectify a chart? Or that life doesn’t go on, even after you are no longer in the body?

Footnotes:

(1) A note about birth dates: There has always been a misunderstanding about Hamilton’s birth year, either 1755 or 1757.  In the research for his biography Chernow went to his birthplace and read the records. He concluded that Hamilton lied about his age when he left the West Indies and came to New York. Regulus Astrology, LLC came to the same conclusion in his rectification. Both concur the year was 1755.

(2) New York Times Style magazine, July 19, 2015; The American Revolutionary by Jody Rosen

(3) For those unfamiliar with Regulus, LLC, here is the website. If you go to the Research section and scroll down to Supplement Part I, you will find the rectification for Alexander Hamilton.

Here is TMA’s review of The Rectification Manuel: The American Presidency (2007).