During these current times of chaos, it is helpful for Americans to reflect upon how our nation began. The reaction to destruction of ties to the colonizer allowed the emergence of a new structure with the attitude of letting go of what did not serve.
Indeed, our nation, our governmental experiment, began its conception and consolidation under the auspices of a waning gibbous moon in 1776, a bit more than three years after the enactment of the Tea Act (May 1773), also occurring during a waning gibbous moon, which resulted in a protest: The Boston Tea Party in December 1773 during a waxing crescent moon. The common phrase used then, and since, “no taxation without representation,” sums up the spirit and desire to break away from the grip of the colonizer to form a new nation.
Why does the moon phase matter? A waning gibbous, just after a full moon, encourages introspection and releasing what no longer is needed or useful, while the waxing crescent just after the new moon is helpful for beginnings. In American history, there is no denying the Boston Tea Party assisted in propelling the idea of an independent nation into being.
In short, the role of the American Revolution reflected liberation and destruction: our historical Tower.
The Tower F. F. Solesio (editor), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
From the chaos of war, representatives of the original 13 colonies gathered to establish separation and to form a new government. In tarot, The Tower card implies a sense of impending doom, disaster, and destruction of a foundation. Whether the foundation was necessary or desired is a different question; however, the reality of a sudden, drastic, and complete change is frightening.
Some colonies formed based in part on the desire for freedom of religion. It is fitting that this would become the first right listed in the Bill of Rights for the U.S. Constitution. Before freedom of speech or of the press, or of assembly or the right to petition the government, this was a core of the foundation of our country because it was not permitted under British law. The Church of England, also known as the Anglican Church, enjoyed a type of supremacy which did not encourage or permit freedom to worship for non-Anglicans, such as Catholics or other religious groups.
In retrospect, knowing that our established colonies existed as a haven from a lack of religious freedom in England serves as a reminder of current societal religious conflicts. On paper, the goal is to maintain our Constitution, including and especially the Bill of Rights.
In truth, our separation document, the Declaration of Independence, which served as the start of our nation 249 years ago can remind us of why we are a nation. We compromise.
We may fight bitterly amongst ourselves and disagree vehemently with any who stand against the core principles of our founding as a nation, but we stand proud as Americans each July 4.
Even as we wrestle with internal politics and the basics of why we still hang on as a unified collection of states as sprawling Federal Republic spanning a large part of the continent of North America with 48 contiguous states, Alaska in the northwest attached to Canada, and Hawaii to the far west in the Pacific Ocean.
We are a republic, not a monarchy. We embrace elections, not rulership of a non-elected individual. We have a president who works in conjunction with our legislators in Congress. Our government is decentralized, hence the messiness with 50 states, the District of Columbia, and our numerous less-recognized territories.
Each July, we celebrate the birth of the Declaration of Independence, first with the announcement of the Lee Resolution on July 2, 1776, followed by formal ratification of the Declaration itself on July 4, 1776 by the Second Continental Congress. We plan picnics, grill our favorite foods, watch fireworks, relax with our families, and consider it a summer holiday to celebrate the liberties and freedoms we enjoy as a nation.
In 1787, there were two plans regarding how representation of the nation should occur. The first, the Virginia Plan proposed a bicameral legislature, which we have now, but with the number of members dictated by the size of the state. A small state, like Delaware, would have fewer representatives in both houses than a larger state, like Pennsylvania. Smaller states preferred a second proposal, the New Jersey plan which revised the Articles of Confederation.
The final result, which we often take for granted, is a compromise – a balance as designated in the United States Constitution for the Legislative Branch (Article 1),the Executive Branch (Article 2), and the Judicial Branch (Article 3).
The Great Compromise of 1787 resulted from the third plan, the Connecticut plan, which blended proportional representation by population in the House of Representatives, with a fixed two members per state representation in the Senate.
While our nation is relatively young, with only 249 years in existence, we have a choice. We live, die, and survive through the decisions we have made as a country.
We continue to ask ourselves, especially as we celebrate the anniversary of our founding as a nation, whether we truly have a democratic republic as Benjamin Franklin, one of our founding fathers noted in 1787, using a Presidential system, or do we have something else?
“A republic, if you can keep it.”
–Benjamin Franklin’s response to Elizabeth Willing Powel’s question: “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”
We are on the precipice of a rather big birthday a year from now in 2026. Yet it feels on many levels as though our established democracy is evolving into a type of autocracy for some, or at the very least, a diminution of the strength of its original form.
In a nation that publicly has prided itself during the last 60 to 70 years on differences, we are failing ourselves and our foundation. The concept of so-called “checks and balances” appears to be fast eroding. For every activist, senator, congressperson, governor, or local elected representative who decries these changes, there are the silent, the apathetic, the weary, and those who can no longer gather the strength or courage to fight changes.
The lesson of the Tower implies destruction and disaster, but the question remains: is this change suddenly thrust upon us or is it one we seek to embrace?
Do we lead and embrace the change to strengthen our nation or do we freeze, allowing the change to overwhelm us?
Strategy, the art of meticulous warfare, encourages examination of a desired outcome decades and generations beyond the current situation. Perhaps this is why views of major dictatorial regimes note the plans to grab power are never measured in the shortness of time, but in the fullness of time. We look at other nations’ leaders such as China’s Xi Jinping as dictators: their power is not only absolute, but the nations they rule are shaped along singular lines in terms of oppression and repression.
When we continue to hold fast to our republican ideals, we resist oppression, dictatorship, or the cult of personality, such as life in the former U.S.S.R under Stalin in the 1920s until his death in 1953.
We champion our individuality, our diversity, and our embrace of differences to enhance the nation as a whole.
Our very system of two, four, and six year patterns for congressional, gubernatorial, presidential, and senatorial elections encourages a never-ending cycle of fundraising, placating, and securing support for each primary and general election. Change is expected, even when we do not like the results of the election.
We know that we will get our turn.
With the fast pace of recent events over the past several years, is it any wonder that there is never time to simply reflect upon whether the government of the people, by the people, and for the people truly reflects the people?
Many recent decisions during the last six months have ripped apart a reconciliation of sorts that began in the mid-1950s and culminated in a series of civil rights decisions and legislative actions which became the law of the land.
Laws stand until they are unraveled, struck down, and picked apart like a sweater ridden with moth holes.
For the ordinary citizen, raised to believe that the equality base of the United States assures that anyone can become its leader or president, the Tower juts out at a dangerous angle, ready to collapse at the next blow or strike.
As a nation, we are used to the pattern of someone or something saving the day, rescuing the populace from the madness of the minority. The concept of the minority evolving into a majority with the assistance of apathy generated through a sense of powerlessness and hopelessness did not exist in the same manner six decades ago as it does now.
We are living in a type of summer madness where our sometimes hideous historical past, not only faces us as prologue, but if we are not willing to face it, we risk this past becoming a permanent future.
Some are not waiting, and choose to escape through emigrations to any country that appears to have held onto our formerly cherished values of a true democracy.
A country filled with willing immigrants, the unwilling enslaved, and the ignored Indigenous population is disintegrating into a mass of the “haves” and the “forgotten.”
In viewing the learning of our country, customs, and traditions, the timing of this draws attention. The year 2025 is a nine year and the end of a cycle. Its components go to change (the number 5), in the millennium that requires not individual action (the number 1) but cooperation, the ability to listen and work well with others (the number 2). This is a time for diplomacy, compromise, and working together instead of going it alone. The previous “nine” year in 2016 drew forth the aspects of individuality (the number 1) and family (the number 6) with a focus missing from this iteration of the nine year.
Why does it matter? With each cycle, we gain knowledge and as a species, we hope to evolve into a more positive version of ourselves. Unlike 2016, the year 2025 has even more emphasis on our ability to cooperate and our ability to accept change, as in ‘a rolling stone gathers no moss’ type of change.
The five is also the number of mankind and an indicator of a demand for justice. Eruptions, visible as protests, dominate our landscape as we still learn to work together. Inequality is a blot that the populace chooses to fight against. When Justice appears to rule in our favor, we rejoice. When the scales balance in the opposite direction, we mourn.
Our country mourns the loss of appreciation for the immigrant, for the acceptance of differences which makes the United States of America not just “united”, but special in terms of governance. We have left our birthright status as a land of freedoms, including religious freedoms, to a land slowly evolving into a Christian-leaning theocracy.
Noah Wulf
American Flag
As Witches, Heathens, Pagans, polytheists, we may be able to hide in the plain sight shadows by not publicly appearing to affiliate with any religion, thus appearing to be a default nominal Christian. In short, the absence of a clear declaration of religious beliefs brings the assumption that a primarily Protestant Christianity is present. Roman Catholics, Jews, and Muslims are accepted to varying degrees as part of the underlying embrace of all Abrahamic religions. This is not an attack against Christianity, as those who practice varying forms of Christianity are not guaranteed freedom from rebuke by the dominant governmental culture either.
Indeed, just as we can hide in plain sight, however it does not mean that it is wise, or healthy to do so. We have weathered the times when our country fomented bigotry and inequality in the name of so-called freedom.
In a recent interview on CBS Sunday Morning, theD oobie Brothers spoke of songwriting, their latest album, Walk This Road.
Michael McDonald noted the following:
“We all live on this one tiny little blue ball. We’re all walking down this same road. By virtue of that we’re going to have to learn to get along with each other and listen to each other.”
Our relationship as a nation began with bright hope and consideration as an experiment. We agreed to grow together, citizen and country, in sickness and in health, for better or worse. The United States of America is a marriage of optimism, practicality, and the ability to believe that no matter how bad things seem, that we will not only survive, but will thrive as a union. As a nation, we will grow and learn from our mistakes.
Beginning with the acknowledgement of our rights, a definition of who is a person and who is a citizen, continuing with slavery as a national wound, we have grown and evolved through our life lessons. Our nation thrives on the myriad of diasporas who have arrived, clung, and survived the many changes thrust upon the United States of America by historical events and reactionary realities. Our leaders, chosen by the popular vote and the electoral college, made decisions that later generations changed.
It is how we grow as a nation and as a unified people. What our anniversary reminds us is that even now after 249 years, we must work to keep our union strong and viable.
We do not want kings or queens, dictatorships, or totalitarianism. Our experiment may fray with a few disagreements, but we fight, we pray, we reaffirm our principles as a nation, and we grow stronger.
We have made it to our 249th anniversary. The only question remains if we will be a fully federated republic, a continuing experiment when we celebrate our 250th.
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