“...never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
(John Donne’s closing phrase in a paragraph of his Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, written while he was the Dean at St. Paul’s in England and ill with spotted fever in 1624. This then became the title (For Whom the Bell Tolls) of one of Ernest Hemingway’s most famous novels, and which became John McCain’s most treasured literary experience)
This is an introduction only to a multi-part series of articles that I am temporarily calling The Passing of John McCain: Why America Needs to Re-awaken to its Higher Destiny. For now, please forget politics and political parties, let go of whether you have primarily been anti-war (especially, if you are old enough, anti-Vietnam War) or your fervent belief is my country right or wrong. Thankfully, the mathematics of astrology, when correctly understood, brings us to a level of consciousness that is beyond emotions and thoughts, more a part of intuition and lofty imagination, and therefore truly global, cosmic and eventually divine.
In America, in August 2018 on the national level, we have witnessed the passing of renowned singer/musician Aretha Franklin (born March 25, 1942 and died August 16), John McCain (born August 29, 1936 and died August 25), and celebrated playwright/screenwriter Neil Simon (born July 4, 1927 and died August 26). These deaths occurred within a 10-day span following a New Moon in Leo — the main zodiacal sign of dramatic performers on the global stage.
As I write this today — Saturday, September 1 after watching numerous tributes/eulogies to John McCain at the Washington National Cathedral and after contemplating for a week what the death of these larger-than-life figures means to America — I realize there is a deep connection to another fallen U.S. Senator, Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated 50 years ago and was then eulogized at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in NYC by the last remaining Kennedy brother, Ted, then the U.S. Senator from Massachusetts and only 36 years old.
For reasons I will explain in one of the future installments in this series, the death of the third Kennedy brother in 1968 and the words spoken by the youngest remaining brother altered the trajectory of my life path — away from becoming a physician like my father and uncle, and in a more metaphysically-inclined professional direction.
Again, for a moment, put any political opinions aside when you look over the text of Ted Kennedy’s closing remarks about his brother from June 1968:
“My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life; to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.
Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will someday come to pass for all the world.
As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him:
Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.”
A much deeper exploration of Senator McCain’s passing, from the astrological perspective, will be offered in future articles. However, I have included at this time – in addition to the charts of John McCain’s birth and his passing – the charts for America (July 4, 1776) and what I call the Presidential Power horoscope for when George Washington took the first Oath of Office as the leader of our nation (April 30, 1789, a chart that other professional astrologers in the past called the Keystone Chart in Sovereignty).
Back in 2008, when John McCain and Barack Obama were running for president against one another, I noted that Senator McCain’s natal Saturn at 20+ degrees of Pisces was identical with the Presidential Power Saturn. I thought at the time how astounding this synchronicity was, and that furthered my interest in studying this rarely-used Presidential Power chart when looking at the behavior of our nearly four dozen chief executives who have held that office since 1789. (Note: Senator McCain’s natal Uranus at 10 degrees of Taurus, one of two key planets at his birth associated with maverick themes — the other celestial body being Chiron — is conjunct the Sun placement in the Presidential Power chart. This interaction clearly stands out as another reason that John McCain was psychically drawn to run twice for the presidency.)
The fact that transiting Mars at 28+ degrees of Capricorn was stationary in the sky during the weekend of John McCain’s passing struck me as also remarkable — after all not only is Mars the traditional ruling planet of warfare and soldiers, but John McCain’s natal Moon is located within 1+ degrees of this station while his Pluto at 28+ degrees of Cancer is exactly opposite. Plus, Senator McCain died at his third Secondary Progressed Moon Return, which can only happen if a person lives to be around 82 years old (which is also the very challenging, potentially confusing or illuminating time in life when Neptune, taking 164 years to make one journey through the zodiac, makes its only opposition to its natal placement at birth). And, by the way, John McCain’s natal Moon and Progressed Moon are united with America’s Pluto, a Pluto that will make its first return for our nation in 2022 - 2023.
The numerous astrological threads to pull together in this amazing tapestry of our potential reckoning and spiritual realignment as a nation (long, long overdue) will be woven in future stories in this series, but for now it is important to understand the bizarre circumstances of The White House first lowering the American flag to honor the passing of John McCain, and then raising it up again a day later at the order of President Trump — only for this travesty and dishonoring act to lead to a partial revolt of certain people in The White House (certainly including Chief of Staff General John Kelly, whose son Robert died in the war in Afghanistan) -- this revolt causing the flag to be lowered again, clearly overruling the first instinct of a president who doesn't know how to be gracious and honestly respectful.
Why mention this? The symbol of the flag at half-mast is very significant in general and specifically for our country. During the final year (1963) of President Kennedy’s term in office, psychic Jeane Dixon had a vision of the flag at half-mast over The White House. She tried to warn the president of his possible demise in the near-future and she had already indicated in Parade magazine in May 1956 that a dark-haired, blue-eyed Democrat would become president in 1956, but that he would be assassinated.
Now Jeane Dixon, like so many psychics, was and has been disparaged for many wrong and inaccurately-timed predictions. Nevertheless, what I mention in the previous paragraph did occur.
Astrologically speaking, why did Jeane Dixon receive her vision of the flag at half-mast over The White House during the summer of 1963? Because a Total Solar Eclipse on July 20 struck President Kennedy’s natal Saturn at 27+ degrees of Cancer — oddly enough or in sync with Senator John McCain’s natal Pluto and opposite to the USA Pluto and Senator McCain’s natal Moon. Let us also remember that Navy veteran JFK was born with a tenth house Saturn, a placement for world leaders considered ominous, for rising to a great height only to suffer a cataclysmic fall, and a placement that happened at the births of Napoleon, Adolf Hitler, and Richard Nixon. JFK died just 4 months after the Total Solar Eclipse struck his Saturn exactly.
How all this relates to the passing of John McCain is that on the day he died, the largest asteroid Ceres at 25 degrees of Virgo was passing through a degree of the zodiac with the following symbol: “A flag at half-mast in front of a public building. Keynote: The social acknowledgement of a job well done and a destiny fulfilled.” (From An Astrological Mandalaby my main astrology/philosopher mentor Dane Rudhyar, where this book reinterprets the Sabian Symbols received by a psychic Elsie Wheeler in 1925 working then with the professional astrologer Dr. Marc Edmund Jones)
I think it is crucial to read a little more from Dane Rudhyar’s description of the meaning of this degree of the zodiac because it profoundly describes John McCain’s message to America at this time.
Rudhyar writes about 25 Virgo: “As an individual who has accepted any significantly met public responsibilities reaches the end of his service to his community or to mankind as a whole, he gains social immortality, at least to some extent. In death he becomes identified with the archetype that enrolled his public office. He becomes a ‘culture hero,’ enshrined in the official memory of his race. He has found his place in history. The symbol implies the ability to carry any task to its ultimate fulfillment, provided the task is carried out with reference to the need of a collectivity, small or large as it may be...We are presented with an image of the end results of the individual’s service to mankind. His personal failings may be forgotten but his achievements remain. They are given Public Recognition.”
Ceres may actually be the ruling planet of Virgo, John McCain’s Sun-sign — a rulership I will explain more fully in future installments of this story. In addition, it is the only stationary celestial body at the birth of America on July 4, 1776, and a stationary planet at the birth of any entity is raised in power with a gigantic presence and influence. Ceres has a strong connection to cereals, grains, the harvest, America being the “bread basket” to the world and also the “melting pot” of many religious and ethnic groups from around the globe. Ceres is naturally identified with the forces of Mother Nature, mother-daughter and also parent-child relationships. And there is much more to this so long neglected major planetary matriarch of the asteroid belt in our solar system.
In the chart we have used here for decades at Earth Aquarius News, The Great Bear and Welcome to Planet Earth for America’s birth on July 4, 1776 (using a time of 4:47pm), the USA Midheaven or highest point in the horoscope is 25 degrees of Virgo. Therefore, Ceres at 25 Virgo at John McCain’s passing was not only energizing the symbology of the flag at half-mast, it was riding high at the zodiacal position above for America.
Furthermore, in looking over the chart for John McCain’s passing, you will see the Moon below at 26+ degrees of Aquarius – making its monthly return in the USA birth chart for July 4, 1776. In the field of Mundane Astrology, the Moon signifies the Public and the Mass Consciousness within it – beyond the usual meanings of the lunar orb. For John McCain to pass away at the exact time of the USA’s monthly lunar return is very unique – as this type of event only occurs for a few minutes out of the approximately 656 hours that pass between any lunar return and the next one. Therefore, I don’t see this as an accident or coincidence; it was orchestrated by unknown spiritual forces to help our country come to grips with its past, to understand more about the karmic lessons we need to learn about war and peace, “straight talk” versus lies.
Also, notice in John McCain’s passing chart an extraordinary and fairly exact Grand Triangle in earth signs composed of the Sun in Virgo, Uranus in Taurus and Saturn in Capricorn. Since the chart for anyone’s passing describes what they accomplished with what they were originally given at birth, the Sun’s trine to maverick Uranus and conservative Saturn clearly reveal the two profound archetypes to which John McCain attempted to align his life destiny – not always successfully, as he would be the first to admit.
A closing note: I have read some very disturbing articles in the last week insinuating that John McCain happily collaborated with the North Vietnamese while a POW for 5+ years and other conspiratorial and scandalous remarks — that he wasn’t really tortured, etc. John McCain was brutally honest about his own shortcomings and no one will ever truly know what happened in his life while in Hanoi from late-October 1967 to March 1973. He has taken that truth to his grave. I didn’t support him during his run for the presidency and I didn’t think it wise for America to elect anyone who had been tortured for so long and a POW for many years. I didn’t like a lot of his views across the board (especially his concepts of America needing to be involved in so many foreign military engagements and therefore skyrocketing budgets for weapons of war), but I admired his courage to speak out in often blunt and unambiguous terms.
And one more thing for younger people who negate or disparage his role in the U.S. Navy. On December 1, 1969 (the year after I became an editorial writer and columnist for, at the time, the prestigious Michigan State News in East Lansing, and being very much an opponent of the Vietnam War, that was widening into Cambodia and Laos), the draft was instituted and I remember all the birthdays were chosen on national TV to see who might be drafted to go to war in Vietnam. Anyone whose birthday was chosen in the first 50 to 100 or so picks would probably be contacted by our armed forces to serve. My number was 323 or thereabouts, so I didn’t have to worry about being called up and choose one of three options — reluctantly go into the armed forces, leave America for Canada or another country, or try to get a medical deferment (which is what, through higher-up connections, Donald Trump did and Bill Clinton as well, and Dick Cheney received 5 deferments over several years as a "long-term student," and, by his father or other family members allegedly pulling strings, George W. Bush joined the Texas Air National Guard and many members of the Guard, for various reasons, did not have to serve in Vietnam). So, before anyone sits in judgment of John McCain (whose father and paternal grandfather were four-star U.S. Navy Admirals and therefore it was natural for John McCain to have some kind of military career), young American reporters or writers who belittle his efforts should thank their lucky stars we have no draft now or recently that might have sent them into battle or out of this country.
As the son of a father who served in World War II as an Army Captain and physician in the Philippines and whose uncle during WWII was a physician in the Army serving in Europe, I grew up learning all about American wars and who we were fighting for and against. While I feel a great shame for how this nation has treated so many of the people living on this continent and through imperialism, colonialism, slavery, and secret coups and false-flag operations far and wide, the life and death of John McCain fall into a different category of understanding which I will spell out in the future.
Stay tuned to this online channel for the follow-up articles in this series...where I will share much more about For Whom the Bell Tolls, John McCain's deep connection to Ernest Hemingway, and how a revived and hopefully more bi-partisan strong Congress may be the last resort of saving America in the years ahead when Pluto makes its first return to its natal placement as this mythological and yet profoundly real and provocative, Lord-of-the-Underworld planet has a vast 247-year cycle and has never come back before to re-energize its natal placement in our national birth chart.
Copyright 2018 by Mark Lerner and Great Bear Enterprises. All rights reserved.