The Astrology of Benjamin Franklin
Taking it from the top, Benjamin Franklin has Venus conjunct his Midheaven in the corporate sign of Capricorn in trine to Saturn in his second house of income. This configuration gives him a mutual reception between Saturn sitting in the Venus ruled second house combined with Venus sitting in the Saturn ruled, Capricorn, 10th house. Talk about capitalist, governing and medical gifts. He had them all. This placement made him a wealthy man and brought him admiration with a reputation of kindness with an artistic flair. Franklin may have even considered himself an artist and prized the notion of brotherly love above all else. Also located in his 10th house, his Sun in Capricorn. This position of the Sun can grant leadership, a public destiny and great willpower in the seat of high authority. Benjamins Moon in the sign of Pisces is in a precise sextile to Venus giving him favor and opportunity with the fairer sex and also lending him great intuition and psychic power being placed delicately in the 12th house of private matters. This Moon falling in the sign native to the 12th house would have lended Franklin a receptivity to ideas that would come from dreams, premonitions and claircognizance. He had great emotional access to the collective unconscious and would have had a keen ability to sense things before they happened. He may also have elegantly hid his emotional side from those around him and required frequent hours of alone time in which to venture off into his imagination. This placement could also have caused long departures from home, the 12th house being a house of loss and over seas travel and it is known to be the case that he was separated from his common-law wife, Deborah Read, for extended periods of time throughout his life.
Benjamins Mercury is retrograde in certainty loving, fact collecting Aquarius and located in the 11th house of groups and public meetings. Due to the retrogradation of Mercury upon his birth, his mind would have been focused internally and worked uncharacteristically in the fields pertaining to math, science and humanitarian pursuits. Ben was a polymath, meaning he could pull information together from various and diverse subjects as well as being an honest observer of astrological goings on. He published astrological information in his journals and his publication, Poor Richard's Almanac. In 1751 he writes a full article on astrological details, of which he included in his publications frequently but also chided. There is a rumor that "Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson conspired to change the date members of the Continental Congress signed America’s Declaration of Independence from Great Britain and changed the course of history."1. And they did so for astrological reasons due to the moon being disadvantageously placed until the more auspicious day of July 4th, 1776. Franklin noted astrology with certitude in many of his publications but may have been all too aware of the prevailing opinion that astrology was not 'scientific' enough. It seems as though he sat on the fence regarding the subject because of insufficient evidence to astrology's credit. And so, it is important to note that whether or not astrology is true is measured by whether or not the astrologer discussing the facts of astrology is aimed correctly at the subject. Meaning, if your astrologer is wrong, it's because your astrologer is wrong, not because astrology is wrong. I bring this up because during Franklins time astrology was suffering a setback in the shadow of scientific breakthroughs. It's a shame the two could not have held hands along the way, for medicine and invention work well together. But that is strictly for the times that are ahead of us, more on that subject later.
If the birth time is indeed accurate for Franklin this gives him an Aries ascendant. It seems very beneficial for him seeing how this would make Mars the ruling planet of Franklins chart and it is very well placed in fellow fire sign Sagittarius in his 9th house of publishing for which he was known. Mars is also found in a grand fire trine between the outer planets of Pluto retrograde in Leo and Neptune in Aries. This denotes an effortless talent and passion for creativity and putting dreams into action. With Neptune in Aries in his 1st house, he may not have penned the term "American Dream", but he certainly embodied it, for Neptune is the dreamer and visionary himself.
It would seem as though, Franklin, surrounded by pious men would himself have been driven by faith. Yet, the Jupiter placement in his chart, square to Neptune and opposed to his Sun indicates he struggled to comply with prevailing beliefs. In the sign of Cancer, this signals a family and homeland driven opportunist. A man whose home life may have been deflated and unhappy. This is the picture of disappointment and with his Sun opposite Jupiter, an over zealous, excessively expanded sense of self would indicate he felt a sense of falling short of his personal expectations. In addition, Franklin was privately, quite shy. He may have been tempted to overeat to ward off a nagging feeling of not being special enough. But I bring the legend down to, too human a dimension by noticing these things. It's seems unwarranted and unfair. Still, we should be relieved to realize that the greatest among us were also human with a vast array of boring and pointless emotions that arose for them to conquer and learn from.
In human terms Franklin was under a heavy amount of mental pressure. His great faculties came about from hours of hard work and aggressive discipline. He did not think in the same order as his friends but often against them. He was a man of his own word and his own opinion. He went against the grain, determinedly so. His Mercury is not only retrograde, giving it much resistance and adversity but it is also the only air sign in Franklins chart. His ideas would have felt to have to be squeezed through a crooked hallway before freeing themselves into the hands of ingenuity.
Lastly Ben had a most elegant Yod configuration to Uranus, planet of electricity in his 5th house of creative expression. Yod aspects are also called "Fingers of God" because they are felt as immovable destinies that are particularly stressful and agonizing to own. Bens Yod is directly aimed at Uranus in Leo conscripted by his Moon in Pisces and his Venus in Capricorn. While it is widely disputed wether Franklin invented the harnessing of electricity, his chart does show a direct and pertinent involvement with Uranus that could have presented itself as a creative obsession. With both Uranus and Pluto in the 5th house of gambling and risk taking in the sign of Leo, Franklin would have been highly driven to play with fire!
Here is the link to view Franklins chart: https://www.astro.com/cgi/chart.cgi?gm=a1&nhor=98035081&nho2=432571&btyp...
1.https://astrologynewsservice.com/news/you-wont-read-this-in-your-history... - Read about the Astrology of the Declaration of Independence here.
Thank you for reading about Benjamin Franklins astrology chart. I invite you to find out wether you hold anything in common with him in your own astrology chart. You can find out more by booking a reading with me. Thank you and have a beautiful day.