First Progressed New Moon Chart
This Progressed chart reflects Luther-King’s life from 1954 (age 25) to his assassination in 1968.
Rudhyar theorised that a progressed chart cast for the time and place of the first new moon after birth provides significant information about “the process of personality unfoldment” that occurs over the following 30-year cycle. [‘Lunation Cycle’ p.114].
Again, the degree of the zodiac upon which the progressed new moon falls is said to give us a valuable clue to understanding this process. With Dr King’s first post natal new moon occurring at 20°31’ Aquarius we have the following Sabian Symbol as our clue …
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20°31’ Aquarius : “A disappointed and disillusioned woman courageously faces a seemingly empty life.”
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By Rudhyar’s account, this symbol foretells a cycle of setbacks, reverses of fortune, struggles with disillusionment and depression, and a need to develop COURAGE and RESILIENCE in the face of seemingly endless years of turmoil. [‘Astrological Mandala’, p.262].
How do the biographical facts accord with this tense prophecy? Well, the first seven years of the new cycle saw his home bombed (1956), an assassination attempt (1958), and three brushes with the law (1956, 58, 61 – most involving short stints in prison. The second seven years of the cycle, leading up to his death in 1968, witnessed more of the same : more arrests in 1962, 63 and 64; a violent confrontation with right wing extremists in 1962; and a tragic bombing in Birmingham in 1963 that resulted in the deaths of four young female parishioners. He also had J. Edgar Hoover on his case from 1963, his telephone bugged and agents under instruction to discredit his standing among financial supporters, church leaders, government officials, and the media. By the Wikipedia account: “FBI agents investigated him for possible communist ties, recorded his extramarital liaisons (allegedly 40 of them), and on one occasion mailed a threatening anonymous letter, which King interpreted as an attempt to make him commit suicide.” The sense of oppression, frustration and anger provoked by these challenges are evident in the natal chart too, in the form of a conspicuous Moon-Saturn-Mars Tee Square figure buried in the centre of Dr King’s natal chart, y’know, like a dagger.
Dr King’s personal life is not as well documented as his public life but some evidence of private emotional strife in these years is apparent too. In his commentary on the Sabian Symbol Rudhyar mentions, “… at the emotional level we see a ‘woman’ confronted with sharp disappointment and the vanishing of cherished illusions, presumably in terms of a close personal relationship.” King’s right-hand man, Ralph Abernathy, wrote in his 1989 autobiography that King had “a particularly difficult time with temptation” specifically, a “weakness for women”; and by the FBI account King enjoyed so many affairs that his wife became “disillusioned with their marriage” – an observation that accords with the cycle’s symbol literally. But of course, we can only speculate on this aspect of the Kings’ private life until 2027 when the FBI tapes and transcripts will become officially ‘unsealed’.
It was not ALL bombs, daggers, prison sentences and marital strife however. Leyla Rael reminds us that while the Pre-Natal and Post-Natal Lunation cycles of a person’s life can be separated in theory, they often overlap and successive cycles may witness ‘changes in level’. This appears evident in Dr King’s case : a (symbolic) “relay runner” conditioned in youth to “carry the torch”, in his next cycle continues to do so, spreading his civil rights message to an increasingly larger audience. Again, 9th House institutions (religious, higher education, and mass media) are his modus operandi, as the biographical history shows. The first seven years of the cycle witness Dr King beginning his pastorate at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama (1954); earning his Doctorate from Boston University (1955); and expanding his civil rights advocacy through an ever-widening range of group associations and public exposures (Montgomery Improvement Association, 1955; Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 1957; and a Time magazine article in 1957). The second seven years of the cycle, leading up to his death in 1968 show the same pattern at yet higher levels, culminating in addresses before hundreds of thousands of civil rights protesters, and even broader mass media exposure as Time Magazine ‘Man of the Year’ for 1963, and Nobel Peace Prize winner for 1964.
All of the foregoing occurred in the waxing hemicycle of Dr King’s first post-natal lunation cycle, a life phase that Rudhyar connects with Jung’s theory of ‘Individuation’ : “The process whereby a particular [socially conditioned] person becomes an ‘individual’ is the second level to which a succeeding lunation cycle can refer, and rebellion against one’s cultural conditioning can represent the first phase of this process.” [Leyla Rael, ‘The Lunation Process in Astrological Guidance’, 1984, p.13]
In this sense it’s possible to understand Dr King’s entire mission from 1954 to 1968 as a spectacular personal REACTION to the social inequality he witnessed in his first 25 years. As journalist Jeff Stone put it, “One of the easiest things to forget about Dr. Martin Luther King is that he was just a person. One of the most influential people of the twentieth century, no doubt, but a person with unique flaws and quirks that made him different from the Christ-like figure he’s often portrayed as today.” [https://www.ibtimes.com/martin-luther-king-cheated-his…]
One final comment on Dr King’s assassination. The progressed chart for 1968 shows the progressed moon just past the symbolic full moon phase and both Mars and Progressed Rising on the 26th degree of Gemini, exactly Opposite Dr King’s natal 8th House Saturn, whose degree symbol is …
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25°21’ Sagittarius : “A flag-bearer in a battle.”
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By Rudhyar’s account, this is a symbol of an unarmed, defenseless person who serves as “the rallying point for the total effort of a large collectivity” yet one who, because he marches into battle at the head of his army, is liable to be the first to fall. Poignant, non? [‘Astrological Mandala’, p.225]
Well, that concludes my bumbling attempt to apply Rudhyar’s lunation theory to the chart of this towering historical figure. It’s a veritable cats-cradle of astrological principles yet, I think, a structure that holds up pretty well against the biographical facts.
I was going to wrap with a Marvin Gaye tribute piece or some Mahalia Jackson Gospel … but came across something a little more quirky that, I think, resonates just as well to Dr King’s horoscope …
Quest for the Real Astrology 
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