Gryphon Astrology Blog

George Washington’s birthday is a relatively neglected holiday, except maybe for the glue-stick-and-colored-construction-paper set at your local elementary school. However, George Washington was a fascinating character, not the least because he was one of the country’s earliest millionaires, and had a very long and distinguished military career to boot. How many people like that do we know today? I cast Washington’s horoscope to see whether we could locate his military career and his wealth, as well as his ascent to the presidency.

Washington’s birth time is given as 10 a.m. LAT, which reportedly translates to about 10:14 a.m. LMT (local mean time).

We see predominately a phlegmatic, watery temperament, which is not something one typically associates with soldiers. However, Washington’s Taurus ascendant is earthy, which probably made him very physically and mentally resilient, as well as more grounded and down to earth than a typical phlegmatic. We see someone who sought structure, order, and controlled growth most of all, because of the importance of Saturn to both of the “mental” planets, Mercury and the Moon.

Given that Saturn rules the 10th house of glory and success, we would expect that Washington was a rather ambitious individual, working slowly and methodically to achieve his goals. There is something in Saturn that loves the structure of the military, so given other indications in his horoscope, it is not a surprise that Washington chose the military life, and that he did so for as long and as successfully as he did.

Mars is in Scorpio in the seventh house of open enemies, a placement very well-suited for a soldier. Mars is in a Mars sign, so we get a soldierly kind of soldier — the man who really is out there on the battlefield strategizing and fighting alongside the men, rather than hanging out in the situation room smoking cigars.

Washington’s second career as a politician is shown by Mercury in the 10th house, trine to Jupiter. The combination of Mercury and Jupiter would give us a lawgiving politician, not just someone who likes to press the flesh, but someone who thinks about the way society is structured and tries to dispense justice. We also notice that Mercury is sextile the Part of Fortune, which is highly auspicious for worldly success in the kinds of things that Mercury represents – politics.

Mercury also rules the second house of wealth, so everything we just said about Washington’s success as a politician applies to his financial state throughout his life. We would assume that Washington came from a well off family, since the financial picture in this chart is good, but not amazing. Therefore, it wouldn’t be a huge leap to go from well-off to wealthy, whereas the leap from poor to wealthy would be far greater and would require a more dramatically positive chart moneywise.

The adjusted birth time seems to make sense. If we advance the midheaven by a degree per year, as we would do with secondary progressions, Washington would have been elected president at the time when his midheaven conjoined his very strong Venus in Pisces. Venus rules his first house of self, so this would give us a very clear picture of Washington ascending to the height of prestige and power.

— Readers who are interested in a natal analysis of their own charts for indications of success and wealth may contact Nina Gryphon via her astrology readings request page.

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