USA Horoscope: Sibly's July 4th Chart, Part of the Proof of the July 2nd Birth

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THE DATA

The Sibly Chart (Sidereally rendered here) for either 4:50 or 5:10 pm (LMT Philadelphia; July 4,1776): Asc 16"37' or 20"44' Scorpio; MC 03"59' or 09"26' Virgo; Sun 21"42' Gemini, 7th House,Placidus. (Sun first in the cusp of the 7th @ 4:40 pm).

 

ABOUT THE CHART:

 

Nicholas Campion devotes 2 full pages to the story of the English astrologer, Ebenezer Sibly in THE BOOK OF WORLD HOROSCOPES. Sibly, the freemason astrologer who published his USA horoscope in 1787, appears to have known quite well of what he analyzed and wrote. As a contemporary to the people involved in Philadelphia, Sibly in the 1780s was a member of Masonic lodges, first in Portsmouth and then in Bristol, two English cities with long established trading connections with the seaports of the USA, of which seaports Philadelphia was the largest. Not surprisingly, the first American Consulate in Britain was opened in Bristol a year after the formal Treaty-Independence of 1783. Campion then goes on to further speculate by citing the research of Michael Baigent who has presented a persuasive case that Sibly was well placed to receive an account of the approximate time moment that the text of "A DECLARATION" (the exact title of the document) was

completed and ordered to be authenticated as printed. One can only add here that perhaps thru conversation at the local Bristol Lodge or from the reading of contemporary newspaper reports, Sibly may have learned what the honorable delegate from Massachusetts, Elbridge Gerry, witnessed by participation and then recorded in a letter dated the day after, on July 5th, that the debate lasted "the whole day". Given the tenor of the daily Congressional sessions that year, this would quite reasonably allow an astrologer to place the Vote closure no earlier than Sibly's estimate (and whether Sibly cast his chart for 4:50 or for 5:10 pm is discussed at length by Campion, but has no direct bearing on the points raised here).

 

What Sibly 's work suggests and Gerry's correspondence reasonably inferrentially confirms is that the time moment of closure was what I term a Sun-in-the-7th-House event, a constitutional moment in contrast to the sovereign death- & -rebirth moment of the 8th House. Sibly's work, alone, substantiates little of the precise time history of that late afternoon, but viewed in conjunction with Gerry's letter (reported in a footnote to the proceedings that July 4th in the "Journals of the Continental Congress" and printed in full in "Letters to the Delegates...") one has strong evidence for concurring in Sibly's estimate. The record is there for all to see, notwithstanding the willfully imaginative but wrongheaded efforts of Penfield, Howland and likeminded others to work with various earlier time moments in the day (Dane Rudhyar's 5:13 pm rectification deserving of honorable mention to the contary here.)

 

A Vedic systems approach to time rectifying this event for some one time moment between, let's say for starters, 4:50 pm and 5:50 pm should be a promising range of moments, which may prove of interest someone in the SAMVA group. For sure, Sibly had it at least approximately right, even if it turns out upon further intensive study that the precisely right time moment of this event's closure is located somewhat later in that afternoon than Sibly saw things.

 

MUNDANE SIGNIFICANCES:

 

Now for the problematic considerationss. Just what is the nature of this July 4th event? Does it mark the birth of the sovereign independent American states from what were North American colonies of Great Britain dependant on the sovereignty of George III just a moment before? Or does this event simply mark the creation of the American nation's Magna Carta, a Charter state document, signifying the inception of a constitutional order for these new, independent yet United, States? I have serious doubts that one may argue successfully that it can be both; so therefore, in making the rectification choice of one or of the other significance, it follows necessarily that it leads one to particular but variant chains of reasoning. If one rectifies for a state's birth, the working assumptions shall not be the same as those for the inception of a nation's constitutional order (indisputably afterall, constitutions are

made by states to institute governance; constitutions of themselves do not institute states). The rectification choice simply put is between the birth of the American nation's states, or the "subsequent" inception of these states' constitutional order.

 

It may appear that I've loaded the dice here; afterall, is the choice-set but only these two, or might it be that the difference of the two summarized here may be a difference more of form than of substance? I think not; and in defense of the interpretation that the July 4th event is one of "subsequent", dependent status to the July 2nd event, let's take a look at July 2nd, two days earlier, as it may prove helpful at this point.

 

Just as there was a Vote signifying closure between 4:50 and 5:50 pm on July 4th, so too on July 2nd there was a Vote, at least at the same hour and minute if not perhaps as much as one hour and more earlier than that of July 4th. (The official Journal's contents of the resolution so voted in favor, as well as its relevant background info from June 7th, June 28th and July 2nd are attached below).

 

July 2nd was the historic day of the "Declaration of Independency" (the official spelling of "Independence" as per the Journal entry referring to the authenticated Declaration on January 18, 1777). The Vote was two-fold in nature and intent: (1) absolute sovereign independence from George III and his government and (2) to declare this here-and-now accomplished fact by means of a published broadside to #.1's effect. The July 4th Vote by contrast was simply an after-the-fact approval of the precise wording of the text already agreed upon in principle (See Journal entry for June 28th, below). There were no signatures, not one, until August 2nd. The text as it appeared on the broadside printed on Friday morning July 5th features the printed name of John Hancock as parliamentary authenticator in his capacity as President and that of the Secretary, Charles Thomson, as attestor. NO AUTOGRAPHICAL SIGNATURES.

 

A productive exercise should be to compare the Sibly chart with a chart for 2:00 pm on August 2, 1776, when as the last of 50+ delegates to sign (last because acting as authenticator), Hancock affixed his historic larger-than-life autograph signature, and thereby gained entry for his given and surname into Webster's dictionary as a synonym for a distinctive signature, John Hancock. This comparative exercise may either substantiate the status of the July 4th Vote as the day of the USA's moment of Constitutional inception or shift the date and time of this constitutional moment to August 2nd, thus leaving July 4th as an emperor without raiment, standing naked and alone in its mythmaking significance, with nothing else to show for itself, and leaving the student of history with at least one puzzlement: Why Congress didn't do the truthful thing ???? and date "A Declaration" for JULY 2, 1776 ........the real INDEPENDENCE DAY of the USA,

and the day Britain's Second Civil war became America's First Revolutionary War.

 

 

Journals of the Continental Congress, FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 1776

Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.

 

Journals of the Continental Congress, FRIDAY, JUNE 28, 1776

The committee appointed to prepare a declaration, & c. brought in a draught, which was read:

Ordered, To lie on the table ….(Note: Until Monday July 1st in order for the delegates to use the time on the weekend to review its contents) .

 

 

FIRST & REPORTED DRAFT

A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled.

 

Journals of the Continental Congress, TUESDAY, JULY 2, 1776

The Congress resumed the consideration of the resolution agreed to by and reported from the committee of the whole; and the same being read, was agreed to as follows:

Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and, of right, ought to be, Free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connexion between them, and the state of Great Britain, is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.1

 

Journals of the Continental Congress, THURSDAY, JULY 4, 1776

Agreeable to the order of the day, the Congress resolved itself into a committee of the whole, to take into their farther consideration, the declaration; ¶and, after some time, & par; the president resumed the chair. Mr. [benjamin] Harrison reported, that the committee of the whole Congress have agreed to a Declaration, which he delivered in.

The Declaration being again read, was agreed to as follows:

Ordered, That the declaration be authenticated and printed.

That the committee appointed to prepare the declaration, superintend and correct the press.

That copies of the declaration be sent to the several assemblies, conventions and committees, or councils of safety, and to the several commanding officers of the continental troops; that it be proclaimed in each of the United States, and at the head of the army.1

[Note 1: 1 "A determined resolution of the Delegates from some of the Colonies to push the question of Independency has had a most happy effect, and after a day's debate, all the Colonies, except New York, whose Delegates are not empowered to give either an affirmative or negative voice, united in a declaration long sought for, solicited, and necessary--the Declaration of Independency." Elbridge Gerry to General Warren, 5 July, 1776.The Declaration was printed in the Pennsylvania Evening Post, 6 July, 1776, and in the Pennsylvania Gazette, 10 July, 1776.

See the Bibliographical Notes at the end of this year.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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