Heavenly Truth

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}

Changing of the Guard: Sun into Scorpio

By tomorrow, the Sun will be in Scorpio. Contained within Scorpio is the celebration of Samhain (Halloween), a night where the boundaries between the worlds is said to be thin and the Underworld is not far away. Divination (various methods, such as scrying, through which knowledge is gained from other worldly sources) is said to be most powerful on this night since the other world from which one is trying to divine answers is so accessible. Samhain is celebrated not with the attitude of fear of the dark or all things representing death, but with respect and welcome for these integral parts of life.

Scorpio is the sign of transformation and it does this by welcoming the "Underworld" into its reality. From the downright frightening to the merely taboo, Scorpio is about bringing those things into our consciousness as well as the pleasant things. Scorpio recognizes that if we push what scares us, about life or about ourselves, into the shadows, we don't get rid of it, we simply give it permission to haunt us, with no control or choice whatsoever. The monsters don't go away; they just get bigger.

I've always preferred the symbol of the Phoenix for Scorpio, over the Scorpion. The Phoenix is a mythical animal that burns in flame when it reaches the end of its life, and the ashes from that ended life nurture the birth of another life. This is not a choice, it's just the method through which the Phoenix dies. Much in life that scares us tends to center around things that come upon us most of the time without any choice, such as our actual physical death which we know, on some level, is always pursuing us. More than just showing courage, Scorpio represents the power that one gains when it stops running and turns to face what is chasing it, even though it risks being swallowed whole. Transformation, like the Phoenix, is not a gradual, gentle change, but requires an utter surrender of what one is and has been, in order to bring forth what it can and must be. Much like Samhain is considered by many to be the end, and the beginning of the year, Scorpio's freedom is found in the moment that it surrenders its life to begin its new one.

We all have a little Scorpio in us, even if it's just by virtue of its ruling planet, Pluto, and we all have a closet in which skeletons may be housed (your 8th house is a great place for that!) We all face times in our lives where we have the opportunity to truly look at what we've created in our lives as a result of our refusal to face a fear or let go of an attachment we've made that we pour our power into so we don't have to have the burden of carrying it. Sometimes it's too much for us to bear, but when we can find the strength, facing the monster allows us to take back the pieces of ourselves that we have left behind in running from it.

As the Sun moves through Scorpio, it brings light to the dark places, so that we may navigate them and transform ourselves in small and large ways. What treasures might you find if you weren't afraid to go into the cave?