Did Astrology Change American History?

    CHICAGO, IL, July 03, 2015 /24-7PressRelease/ -- You probably won't find this in your history books.

In 1776 Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson conspired to change the signing date for America's Declaration of Independence from Great Britain and changed the course of history.

Franklin and Jefferson were members of the Continental Congress and also the committee that drafted the document. The reason the pair wanted to change the July 2 signing date favored by John Adams to July 4 was to take advantage of the friendlier astrological alignments on the later date.

That's right. Franklin and Jefferson were into astrology and strongly believed the country needed to pick the best possible time for declaring its intentions.

Astrologer Lina Accurso described the problem with the earlier date. On July 2, the Moon would be transiting through the astrological sign of Capricorn, one of its weakest signs. And it would be forming stressful opposition aspects to the Sun, Mercury, Venus and Jupiter halfway around the zodiac in the sign of Cancer.

However, on July 4 - the date the Declaration was actually signed - the fast-moving Moon was safely into the next zodiacal sign, Aquarius, and was no longer stressfully challenging the Sun and the other Cancer planets. The difficulties promised by the July 2 chart were avoided.

It's impossible to say how the infant nation might have fared had the July 2 date suggested by John Adams been the way forward. What we do know is that Franklin and Jefferson aggressively lobbied against this option.

Also, with hindsight, it's apparent that July 4 proved to be a fortuitous signing date. The new nation prospered, eventually emerging as the wealthiest nation on the planet and leader of the Free World.

For getting this right we probably owe Franklin, Jefferson - and everyone at the Continental Congress who bought into the program- more than we might imagine.

It was a much different America in 1776. At least 50 of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence were Freemasons, which in this period meant they were activists and patriots who shared common values and deep bonds of loyalty.

On the list of Declaration signers were the men history identifies as America's Founding Fathers: George Washington, John Adams, Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, James Monroe and the group's wise and intrepid ring leader, master astrologer Ben Franklin.

During the Revolutionary War, the traditional secrecy preserved in Masonic Lodges allowed members to communicate and organize the Revolutionary War effort with little fear of exposure. For example, The Boston Tea Party was the work of Masons of St. Andrews Lodge in Massachusetts.

Astrologer Wendy Cicchetti points out that the structure of the U.S. Constitution is identical to the federalism of the Grand Lodge system of Masonic Government created in 1723. Through the lodges of Freemasons the ideas of such Age of Enlightenment thinkers as John Locke, David Hume, Francois Marie Arouet (Voltaire) and Jean Jacques Rousseau became widely disseminated in the American colonies.

But Freemasons in colonial America were out of step with the scientism movement that was gaining momentum in Europe and elsewhere. Franklin, the leading scientist in America at the time, made his views on the matter clear.

It has been argued that the genius of Benjamin Franklin was so overwhelming, and manifested in so many directions, that no short paper can even list his achievements. The American Philosophical Society requires 20 large book pages merely to catalog his inventions, discoveries and the events in which he was intimately concerned.

School children know Franklin as the crazy man who flew a kite in a thunderstorm with a key tied to its tail in order to test his idea that lightening was a powerful electrical charge. Others know him as a leading author, political theorist, inventor, civic activist, environmentalist and diplomat.

For 25 years Franklin wrote and published Poor Richard's Almanac. The series made him rich and famous throughout the colonies and still is quoted today. Sales of Poor Richard's Almanac were second only to the Bible, and the French edition went through 56 printings.

In the almanac Franklin routinely commented on astrological themes and let the world know what he thought of scientism's claims. His published thoughts leave little doubts about where he stood on the matter. Colonial America was clearly following a different trajectory.

In the almanac, with the grammar and punctuation unchanged, he wrote:

"Courteous Reader: Astrology is one of the most ancient Sciences, had in high Esteem of old, by the Wise and Great. Formerly, no Prince would make War or Peace, nor any General fight a Battle, in short, no important Affair was taken without first consulting an Astrologer, who examined the Aspects and Configurations of the heavenly bodies, and mark'd the lucky hour. Now the noble Art (more Shame to the Age we live in!) is dwindled into contempt; the Great neglect us, Empires make Leagues, and Parliaments Laws, without advising with us; and scarce any other Use is made of our learned Labors, than to find the best time cutting Corns, or gelding Pigs, - this Mischief we owe in a great Measure to ourselves: The ignorant Herd of Mankind: had they not been encourag'd to it by some of us, would never have dared to deprecate our sacred Dictates; but Urania has been betray'd by her own Sons: those whom she had favored with the greatest skill in her divine art, the most eminent astronomers among the Moderns, the Newtons, Helleys, and Whistons have wantonly condem'd and abus'd her, contrary to the Light of their own Conscience."

The Astrology News Service is Jointly sponsored by the American Federation of Astrologers (AFA),the Association for Astrological Networking (AFAN),The International Society for Astrological Research (ISAR), The National Council for Geocosmic Research (NCGR) and the Organization for Professional Astrology (OPA).

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