JANUARY 18 MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY

Astrologically, you would expect to see compassion in someone like Martin Luther King, Jr. And you do. His natal Venus and Moon are in the compassionate sign of Pisces. To accomplish stuff, Capricorn is the goat climbing the rocky mountain. And Mr. King was a Capricorn. He could get things done.

You would possibly expect to see his planets clumped together making him able to focus on a single goal, but his planets are spread around the wheel. And because of that, he has a Grand Square, meaning all the modalities are represented. This time mutable, Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces. You may recall from a prior blog that Charlie Sheen has this same Grand Square. And he isn't using it to better society.

So here's one thing that makes this man, Mr. King, different from most people. He has a difficult natal chart, that makes most people crazy, and he channeled it into good deeds. He's not Madonna. Everything didn't come easy for him.

Check out these focal planets, remembering that for most people, they are weaknesses. Mars, giving you energy, but making you forceful usually in a bad way in Gemini. Neptune, giving you the ability to see things the way you want, usually making you a dreamer in a bad way in Virgo. Saturn, giving you the ambition to carry your goals through, usually to prove to your father you're better than he thinks you are & this may be true here, in Sagittarius.  Venus, making you feel unlovable or unloved in Pisces (where it is exalted). And the Moon, making you feel emotionally vulnerable and afraid of criticism.

You can see where this kind of inner turmoil in most people would just make them unproductive. But Mr. King took Mars and reached a lot of people, Neptune and had a dream, Saturn and carried his plans through, Venus, and helped people he loved feel loved, and the Moon and allowed us to see what hurt him.

So if you're thinking, you're stuck with what you got when you are born. You're never stuck. Any chart, no matter how hard, can be turned into greatness. But for some, more than others, you must strive for it.

On the day he died, he had two progressed inconjuncts. Not usually enough to cause a death. But he had very strong transits with Pluto and Uranus conjunct in Virgo and opposition his natal Moon and square to natal Mars and natal Saturn completing that same Grand Square he was born with.