Have Gunn, Will Gavel
Proving it has its finger firmly on the pulse of the corpse of America, the US Supreme Court on June 23 ruled that Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense, effectively upping the ante on concealed carry legislation that is sweeping the nation. This in the wake of recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas, with more than two-thirds of Americans polled supporting tougher gun regulation. For more than a century, New York has had a gun safety law that bars the concealed carry of a firearm without a permit and requires good cause to obtain the permit; the conservative supermajority on the SCOTUS struck it down 6-3, ruling for the plaintiff in New York Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. The case was the first the SCOTUS had weighed in on Second Amendment issues since 2010.
On the same day, the US Senate passed its first gun safety legislation in 30 years. The compromise doesn’t do much to improve the situation (a bipartisan group crafting the bill couldn’t even agree that the legal age to purchase an assault-style rifle should be raised from 18 to 21), but every little bit helps. Providing millions of dollars for mental health, school safety, crisis intervention programs and incentives for states to include juvenile records in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, the bill also makes significant changes to the process when someone aged 18 to 21 attempts to buy a firearm, and closes the so-called boyfriend loophole. The bill passed with considerable GOP support, 65-33, then went to the House, which approved it the following day; Biden signed it into law the day after.
Also on the 23rd, the January 6th Select Committee hearing revealed what many have characterized as the “smoking gun” proving Donald Trump’s criminal culpability in the Capitol insurrection. The hearing focused on Trump’s pressure campaign to overturn the results of the 2020 election, detailing attempts to submit false Electors, have the results voided by state officials, alter vote tallies in key states, coercing the Vice President to reject the certification of the votes, and urging the State Department to declare the election was corrupt, without evidence. Then Acting Attorney General Richard Donoghue testified that Trump told him, “What I’m just asking you to do is say it was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.” Former US AG Eric Holder tweeted in response to the hearing: “This is the smoking gun. Coupled with other testimony demonstrates both Trump’s substantive involvement and corrupt intent, requisite state of mind.”
Three gun stories on one day? Clearly something was up. Way up, like in the skies! A quick examination of the placement of asteroid Gunn, homophone of the weapon in focus, revealed all.
At 24 Virgo, Gunn is closely opposing an exact triple conjunction of Neptune with asteroids Themis and Nemesis, all at 25 Pisces. Themis is named for the Greek goddess of justice, and represents the judiciary and courts generally, as well as the SCOTUS specifically (with each of the judges designated as “Justices”). Nemesis suggests the court is acting as a roadblock or barrier, tempting ruin or downfall, but quite possibly seen by the conservative Justices as promoting divine justice or righting a wrong. Neptune inclines toward confusion, wishful thinking, clouded judgment or hidden motivations, as well as being indicative of zealotry and fanaticism.
There is more complexity here than first appears on the surface. This polarity is also the spine of a “Pierced Yod”, or “Boomerang” pattern, with additional points in semisextile to the far point of the polarity, sextile to each other, and each inconjunct Gunn at the Apex. Yods generally describe fated or preordained circumstances, situations which have a life of their own and are difficult to alter through conscious effort. The Apex point defines the issue in focus, the rest act as modifiers and descriptors of the situation.
Here we have Mars at 21 Aries with asteroid Heller and TNO Eris, both at 24 Aries; and Saturn at 24 Aquarius. Mars rules weapons generally, including firearms; Eris indicates discord, strife and division, with a general flavor of disagreeableness, like the proverbial skunk at a garden party.
Heller is the name of the 2008 case, District of Columbia v Heller, wherein the SCOTUS held that the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects an individual’s right to keep and bear arms in the United States, unconnected with service in a militia, for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home. The District of Columbia’s handgun ban and a requirement that lawfully owned rifles and shotguns be kept “unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock” violated this guarantee, according to the majority conservative court, 5-4, and was thus ruled unconstitutional. This current ruling in Bruen expands the right to carry weapons for self-protection from the domestic sphere into the street.
Saturn here suggests the conservatism of the judicial bloc that made the ruling, as well as representing laws generally. A semisquare from Saturn to asteroid NOT at 11 Aries, a general disqualifier or symbol of negation, is a hidden indicator that the court would refuse (NOT) to endorse a restriction (Saturn) on the use of handguns (Mars).
Broadening our focus slightly, we can also see the Gunn-Neptune/Themis/Nemesis opposition as the String of a loose Grand Trine Kite pattern, with Gunn widely trine Uranus at 17 Taurus, evoking the controversial nature of the decision, and more closely trine Pluto at 27 Capricorn, ruler of homicides, which the ruling may well increase, as well as the raw power which the new conservative supermajority is displaying in many of its rulings this term.
The Gunn-Neptune/Themis/Nemesis polarity is involved in a third major configuration – a T-Square with TNO Chaos at 29 Virgo, also incorporating out-of-Sign squares to asteroid Senator with the Sun at 1 and 2 Cancer. Chaos represents just what it sounds like: disorder, anarchy, confusion, which is precisely what’s likely to increase with more guns legally carried in public.
The conjunction of Senator and the Sun shows the focus on the Senate’s negotiations and the production of the first legislation regarding gun safety in thirty years. In this context, Themis shifts its emphasis from the SCOTUS specifically, to the principles of fairness, equity, and “doing the right thing.” Nemesis picks up her role of confronting evildoers and making them pay for their transgressions, while Neptune evokes more of its qualities of empathy and sympathy for the victims of gun violence. Chaos here is now emblematic of the anarchic conditions the legislation is intended to help quell.
Even the “smoking gun” aspect to the day is reflected in Gunn’s placement. Gunn sits on the rough midpoint, and in semisquare to each, of a square from asteroid America at 10 Leo to asteroid Troemper, our celestial referent for Donald Trump, at 7 Scorpio, depicting the former president as at odds with the nation. Troemper is also at station (having turned direct the day before), putting Trump at a literal “turning point” in his saga. With Troemper is asteroid House at 1 Scorpio, also turning direct the day before, binding Trump with the House’s Select Committee investigating his involvement in the January 6th insurrection.
There is another link in the sky for Trump and Gunn – joining Neptune, Themis and Nemesis is asteroid Whitehouse at 21 Pisces, opposing Gunn. Whitehouse represents the presidency generally, both current and former holders of the office, and can be seen as additional celestial shorthand for The Donald. As such, Neptune now becomes a symbol of the conspiracy to overturn the election and retain power which Trump headed, Themis represents the meting out of justice, and Nemesis provides the punishment for misdeeds. With Gunn is asteroid Richard at 28 Virgo, designating former Acting Attorney General Richard Donoghue, who supplied the “smoking gun” of Trump’s complicity in his testimony.
Even the smoke is in evidence – as asteroid Rauch, conjoining Whitehouse and opposing Gunn/Richard from 20 Pisces. Rauch relates to the German word “rauchen”, meaning “smoking.” Another nod to the precarious nature of Trump’s future after these hearings is the trine from House/Troemper to a pairing of Damocles, representing the doom hanging overhead about to descend, and asteroid Smolders, at 1 and 2 Pisces. To “smolder” is defined as “to burn slowly with smoke but no visible flame.”
Smoking gun, indeed!
