Constance McMillen: Uranus and the Art of Being Yourself

Constance McMillen is the 18 year old Mississippi girl that wanted to bring her girlfriend to the prom and sparked nationwide interest when her request was denied, her prom cancelled, and a 'decoy' prom created as an attempt to satisfy and thus silence her. Perhaps some may say it's old news by this time, but Constance McMillen caught my attention again today and I decided to have a look at her chart.

Constance was born January 5th, 1992,¹ during the Uranus Neptune conjunction in Capricorn. She's also a Capricorn Sun, so she's carrying quite a bit of Capricorn energy, as are many kids around her age.²

Without a birth time, only the planet in sign placements can be determined, which is unfortunate, but still so revealing. Constance has 4 planets in Capricorn, the Sun, Moon, Uranus, and Neptune, as well as her north node, all lined up in one big stellium cluster.³

Her Sun and Uranus in a tight conjunction so the very core character traits and principles that make up her identity (Sun) are fused to the process of individuation (Uranus): sifting through what one's been conditioned to be by society, family, the media, etc. and discarding what doesn't ring authentically true about who you really are.

A strong Uranus is a classic signature for rebellion, yet Constance has said sincerely in interviews that she did not intend to do it to be rebellious or cause an uproar, she simply wanted to be herself and go to her own school's prom, as she felt should be her right. "I'm not going to go to prom and pretend I'm not gay. There's no point"--she said in an interview on Ellen. With Uranus principles being such a core component of her identity, Constance's challenge isn't to rebel against societal pressure as much as it is to be independent of it, to be able to know what is right for who she is and assert that, live that truth. Rebellion happens on the frequent occasion that what we want isn't in alignment with what others want us to be, and we have to break from convention and disappoint and annoy others. But Uranus itself is pursuing your own Truth and your inherent human right to do so.

Neptune is conjunct her Sun on the other side, also rather closely, aligning her identity with a strong sense of idealism, and a consciousness pointed toward the highest and purest ideals. Neptune can also represent a place in our lives where our personal boundaries are low. Neptune is where we are open, spiritually, empathetically, and intuitively. Yet Uranus often represents where we have strong boundaries, even when we don't necessarily intend to, because our apparent and inherent differences from the mainstream become most obvious with Uranus' location in our chart (and the area of life that it's location represents). So we naturally feel a boundary, a distance from others, in this area of our lives.

With Neptune close to her Sun as well, and her relative youth and inexperience, there is a vulnerability to overidentifying with the ideal, what she's representing on a larger scale overpowering her own sense of self. She could get swept up into others' well-meaning plan for her by using her to push an agenda, which would be just as problematic for her, in a way, as it would be for her to have compromised her rights and personal truth in the first place by allowing authorities to tell her who she can and can't accompany to prom.

It's a good thing she's got experienced advocates on her side, such as her mother's friends (elders=Capricorn) who encouraged her to go to the ACLU (the American Civil Liberties Union)  and the ACLU itself, an organization (organizations & institutions = Capricorn) dedicated to equal human rights on many fronts. With all her Capricorn in her chart, she will benefit from experienced elders showing her the way to achieve her goals, but she is inherently developing self-sufficiency and the ability to self-govern. Building a strong sense of identity over her life will incorporate her becoming stronger and more committed to living according to her own integrity and ability to stay clear about her personal goals and agenda.

She comes from the small part of a generation that had Uranus and Neptune actually conjunct in Capricorn, a mini generation that seems like it will be the new lawmakers, who will not only revolutionize (Uranus) the law-making process but also create new rules based on an ideal (Neptune) of individual rights (Uranus). It's appropriate that she's utilizing an organization (the ACLU) to change the rules themselves, rather than just rebelling outside of the system, which would not bring about the system changes that represent the actual changes needed. Uranus and Neptune in Capricorn is about a vision of making people outside of conventional definitions have a place within the system. That's a tall order!

She's also part of the Pluto in Scorpio generation which is carrying the work begun by the Pluto in Libra generation of marriage equality into the sexual freedom component of the marriage issue, pushing the taboo of "alternative" sexual preferences into the light, perhaps even making them less 'alternative' than ever before.

But back to Constance herself. She's not an attention getter. Her south node is in Cancer, which is typically a more introverted and cautious energy, and her wealth of Capricorn tends to present a more conservative style of self-expression. Her Mercury and Mars are conjunct each other in Sagittarius, another indication of a girl with passion for her ideas and ideals. Saturn lies in Aquarius, indicating it's difficult for her to do the work of allowing herself to be truly herself. It will take discipline to step out of the Capricornian desire for others to view her as respectable without catering to rules that are not appropriate for her. She's probably a good, down to earth student (3.86 gpa!) who happens to have been thrust into the spotlight for doing the difficult but ultimately self-affirming work of just being herself. Applause!

_{1: Birth Data Source: Constance's MySpace Blog
2: The Uranus Neptune conjunction in Capricorn was in effect from 1990 to 1994, with the strongest periods in 1992 & 1993.
3: Since no birth time is known, the moon's position is potentially false. However, it was in the sign of Capricorn all day, so her Moon must be in the sign of Capricorn, although if she were born in the evening, it will be further separated from the stellium.}

_{Photo credit: AP Photo via McMillen's family}