Luke Broughton, Ebenezer Sibly, and the USA Chart

Luke Broughton (20 Apr 1828, Leeds, England — 22 Sep 1899, NYC) was a prominent astrologer in the USA during the 19th century. Born into a family in which fathers taught their children the family tradition of astrology, he emigrated to the USA as a young man. His study of American history led him to view Gemini as the ruling sign of the United States of America, much as British astrologers regarded Gemini as the tratidional ruler of the city of London (as in Lilly’s famous woodcut of the fire of London of 1666). Broughton published his hypothesis on January 1, 1861, page 2, in his Monthly Planet Reader and repeated it in the February 1861 edition. Here are his words verbatim:

From Broughton’s Monthly Planet Reader, Jan 1, 1861, page 2.

Broughton makes the following points:


1) The sign Gemini rules the USA. The remaining points are evidence in favor of this hypothesis.
2) The Americian Revolution began when Uranus entered Gemini in the spring of 1775. [He had in mind that the Revolutionary War officially began on April 19, 1775, with the battles of Lexington and Concord.]
3) On July 4, 1776, the date of the Declaration of Independence, Uranus was in the 9th degree of Gemini. By modern calculations, Uranus was at 8 Gem 55′ in the Sibly chart.
4) When Uranus moved out of Gemini into Cancer in the spring of 1872, hostilities between the USA and England ceased.
5) Uranus made a complete cycle and re-entered Gemini in the Spring of 1859.
6) John Brown’s Harpers Ferry affair occurred when Uranus reached 7 Gemini, about 2 degrees away from its position at the time of the Declaration of Independence. [John Brown, a radical abolitionist, led the raid during October 16-18, 1859,  to seize the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), to obtain weapons and spark a slave rebellion in the South. The raid was a significant event in the lead-up to the American Civil War.  By modern calculations, Uranus was at 7 Gem 15′ Rx when the raid began.]
7) As a prelude to the U.S. Civil War, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the United States union on December 20, 1860. At that time Uranus was at 9 Gem 15′ Rx. Thus, one could say that the USA began with Uranus at 8 Gem 55′ and ended after one Uranus cycle when the planet was at 9 Gem 15 Rx.
8) In January of 1861, Broughton predicted that there would not be peace until Uranus exited Gemini and entered Cancer in July of 1865.

Broughton’s publications had a major impact on astrology in the United States, and many American astrologers accepted his argument that Gemini ruled the United States. Evangeline Adams incorportated Broughton’s ideas into her own practice of astrology. For example, she predicted in the early 1930s that the USA would enter into war in 1942 when Uranus entered Gemini. She also created her own symbolic chart of the Declaration of Independence for her mundane astrology work, using a time of 3:03 AM in Philadelphia to generate Angles corresponding to an important eclipse during the summer of 1776.

Other astrologers also created symbolic charts of the Declaration of Independence to use in their work regarding mundane astrology. One of these symbolic charts, which became quite popular, had 7 Gemin 35′ rising and was cast for 2:14:17 AM LMT in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776. Obviously, the Continental Congress was not in session at 2 or 3 in the morning, but modern astrologers appeared not to understand that these were symbolic charts based on principles of mundane astrology rather than actual birth charts of an abstract entity, like a nation.

In an article about the 7 Gemini 35′ USA Declarartion of Independence chart, D.W. Sutton cites the noted astrologer Elbert Benjamine who used this chart since 1908 and attributed its authorship to a Doctor James D. Keifer. Here is the direct quote from Sutton’s article:

“… in 1940 Elbert Benjamine categorically states in American Astrology magazine that the chart he had used since 1908 – referring to a chart that had 7 Gemini 35 on the ascendant – had been given to him by Dr. James D. Keifer. We don’t have an original copy of this chart – or the Herndon chart – so we don’t really know if either chart actually had 7 Gemini 35 ascending. The chart provided by Elbert Benjamine does and it’s possible that he and the Brotherhood of Light’s mundane astrology class, who were actively engaged in ongoing research into the chart, fine-tuned the approximate degree to a more precise 7 Gemini 35. But the documented evidence from Elbert Benjamine states that he was given the 7 Gemini 35 chart by Dr. James D. Keifer in 1908 – so he did it. His Gemini rising chart precedes the Herndon chart by 16 years and astrologers using the US chart with 7 Gemini 35 ascending should identify Dr. James D. Keifer as its source – data supplied by an acquaintance who was a descendant of a signer of the Declaration of Independence. And it seems that Dr. Keifer did a lot of research into the chart before he gave it to Elbert Benjamine.”

In short, Elbert Benjamine (aka CC Zain) of the Brotherhood of Light received the 7 Gemini 35′ chart from Dr. Keifer in 1908 and used it routinely in his practice and teaching to many students for decades thereafter, thus popularizing it among a large group of American astrologers. The Brotherhood of Light lessons are still available online.

How did Dr. Keifer arrive at 7 Gem 35′ for his symbolic chart of the Declaration of Independence? Unfortunately, we don’t have historical records that document his thinking. Given that Keifer gave his chart to Benjamine in 1908 he certainly would have been familiar with Broughton’s writings and idea that Gemini ruled the USA. Thus, it would be logical to look for a symbolic chart with Gemini rising and to incorporate Broughton’s key dates and positions of Uranus in his efforts. Following Broughton’s lead, Keifer would have looked at key dates and degrees of Gemini to identify an Ascendant.

Broughton had identified a few important degrees of Uranus in Gemini that were linked to U.S. independence and should reasonably be close to a symbolic Ascendant in Gemini. These included:
— 8 Gem 55′ on July 4, 1776
— 9 Gem 15′ when South Carolina was the first state to leave the Union.
— 7 Gem 15′ at the start of John Brown’s raid — a kind of declaration of independence for slaves in America.
Thus, a symbolic Ascendant, somewhere from 7 to 9 Gemini, would be consistent with Broughton’s findings.

In mundane astrology, the 20-year period of the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction plays a role in forecasting. The US Declaration of Independence occurred during the Jupiter-Saturn cycle that began on March 18, 1762 with the Jup-Sat conjunction occuring at 12 Aries 21′ near Uranus at 8 Aries 27′ in close sextile to Uranus at 8 Gemini 55′ in the July 4, 1776 chart. The Jup-Sat conjunction position is also trine the MC of Sibly’s USA chart.

The Jupiter-Saturn conjunction of 1762 occurred at 12 Sag 21′, close to Uranus at 8 Aries 27′, and has an MC in Philadelphia at 8 Gem 15′.

A highly significant event, not discussed by Broughton, was the Articles of Confederation (the first constitution of the United States). The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union established a weak central government and served as the first frame of government for the 13 states of the United States. They were debated from July 1776 at the time of the Declaration of Independence and finalized on November 15, 1777 at which time Uranus was at 14 Gem 05′ Rx. Mundane astrologers, however, would have also considered the preceding Aries Ingress of March 20, 1777, as significant at which time Uranus was at 7 Gemini 29′ — almost exactly the Asc of the most popular Gemini rising chart. One can speculate that Dr. Keifer regarded the finalization of the July 4, 1776 discussion about independence came to fruition on November 15, 1777 when the first constitution of the new entity was finalized, and thus 7 Gem 29′ (the position of Uranus at the 1777 Aries Ingress) was the most suitable candidate for the Ascendant of the symbolic chart of the Declaration of Independence.

What about the Aries Ingress of 1776? At that time Uranus was at 3 Gem 19′ — a possible candidate for the Asc of a symbolic Independence chart.

At the Cancer Ingress of June 20, 1776 (prior to the Declaration of Indpendence), Uranus was at 8 Gem 10′ — another potential candidate for a symbolic Ascendant. Let’s look at the chart cast for Philadelphia:

The 1776 Cancer Ingress in Philadelphia, just prior to the Declaration of Independence, has 7 Sag 46′ on the Asc and 7 Gem 46′ on the Dsc, with Uranus at 8 Gem 10′ opposing the Asc.

In the Cancer Ingress in Philadelphia, 7 Gem 46′ falls on an Angle, and is close to the 7 Gem 35′ Ascendant of the Keifer USA chart. Could Sibly have used the 1776 Cancer Ingress as the basis for his famous chart? Let’s cast the same chart for London:

The 1776 Cancer Ingress, just prior to the U.S. Declaration of Independence, has 17 AQ 15′ rising and 11 Sag 53′ on the Midheaven. These values are close to those of Sibly’s USA chart which has 19 AQ 49′ rising and 13 Sag 11′ on the MC.
In addition, Sibly’s MC and the Cancer Ingress MC in London are extremely close to the position of the March 18, 1762 Jupiter-Saturn conjunction, which took place at 12 Sag 21‘. Sibly’s original chart for the US Declaration of Independence. This may also be a symbolic chart based on the Sun’s Ingress into Cancer shortly before the July 4, 1776 meeting of the Continental Congress. Sibly’s USA chart calculated in Solar Fire with the same Angles as in the original. Note the Moon at 27 Aquarius differs from the original with Moon at 24 Aquarius. Could he have miscalculated the Sun’s exact time of ingress into Cancer as well and thus generated slightly incorrect values for the angles of his symbolic chart for the USA?

The Sun’s monthly ingress into each sign can also be significant. For example, the Revolutionary War officially began on April 19, 1775, with the battles of Lexington and Concord. On April 20, 1775, the transiting Sun left Aries and ingressed into Taurus. Here is the chart of the ingress cast for Washington, DC.

This is the chart for the ingress of the Sun into the sign Taurus, which occurred before sunrise on April 20, 1775. Astrologically, this chart would be considered as covering the day that began at sunrise on April 19 and ended at sunrise on April 20. The battles occurred on April 19, 1775 and coincide with the Sun’s ingress into Taurus. Note that on the first day of the U.S. Revolutionary War 7 Sat 31′ is on the MC and 7 Gem 31′ on the IC, which can symbolize the homeland. Again, 7 Gem 31′ appears as a significant degree related to American Independence.

In this chart, we see that 7 Gem 31′ on the meridian in Washington, DC, of the Sun’s ingress into Taurus highlights the importance of this degree in American history.

In summary, the USA Gemini rising chart with 7 Gemini 35′ rising appears to be a symbolic chart tested against many significant events in the founding of the nation and its establishment of its indendence from England. The selection of the Ascendant is also based on important solar ingress charts and probably important eclipses and the 20-year cycle of Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions. It may be that Sibly followed a similar process in creating a symbolic chart for US independence based on the Angles of the Cancer Ingress prior to July 4, 1776 and the actual positions of the planets on that date.