There are a number of "birth" times attributed to the United States, but using 2:17 A.M., which is frequently shown as the official time, it dovetails quite well with the power animals attributed to its signs.

The United States was born in the Year of the Monkey, the Month of the Cat (Rabbit), the Hour of the Ox, and the Minute of the Monkey.

The Monkey has problems with "live and let live." The Monkey needs to throw a monkey wrench into the natural order of things and control its actions and the actions of others. Certainly, the United States, throughout history, has seen fit to move in and affect the destiny of other countries and inflict our standards on to them, right or wrong.

The Monkey tends to have a dogma by which it lives and doesn't stray too far away from it. It needs to be in control and doesn't like to be denied anything. And yet, it will deny itself something it wants to secure a greater subconscious goal. The Monkey believes in duty, and will deny himself his own personal needs to live up to it.

Born in the Month of the Cat (Rabbit), we are homebodies who can travel around the world, but always find that the best place is home in the good of U. S. of A. We have magazines that are always talking about self-worth and self-esteem, and encouraging us to be more assertive. We are bombarded with ads about cleanliness and cleaning agents that other countries look at curiously -- all qualities of the Cat and the Large Intestine meridian. Living in the land of opulence and abundance, we still are stricken with conscience, wondering if we deserve it.

Born in the Hour of the Ox, we are a country of violence. Uranus, the planet of rebellion, is right at the hour in which we were born. We feel stifled and repressed and want to lash out and be autonomous and free, sometimes at any cost. The instability of Uranus causes irritation in the liver consciousness and continually keeps our autonomous nervous system on edge. Any attempts at curtailing our freedom causes us to lash out, angry at the thought of being held back from attaining our inalienable rights.

The violence in our country is partly because the country was born at Liver time, and partly because Uranus is there to keep it unstable and volatile. With the Ox/Liver at the hour of our birth, we tend to be an angry culture, resenting the lack of progress we have made toward attaining our goals. We stated we had an inalienable right to the pursuit of happiness (and happiness is a Liver emotion). Maybe we shouldn't have made it a futuristic concept, but said "attainment" of happiness. The subconscious takes things very literally, so that we have created an inalienable right to "pursue," but not necessarily attain, and yet we feel curtailed when we don't reach that level of attainment.

The United States was born in the Minute of the Monkey, as well as the year. A double Monkey is going to have lessons around letting go and letting God/universe do its perfect work, rather than trying to be the policeman of the world.

As an added note, the planet Pluto, which signifies transformation, evolution, and soul growth in a chart, was in the Circulation-Sex area of the national chart at birth, or the meridian of the Dog.

Dog people, as we have seen, can have problems with intimacy and sexuality. In its negative, they see sex as dirty and something to be avoided. This is our stigma in this culture, and other countries around the world wonder why we are so puritanical and uptight over sexuality. With Pluto in Circ-Sex, as a nation, we need to move beyond viewing sex as a purely physical act and alchemize it with love. Until we do, we will continue to polarize between fantasizing over romance novels, while pornography proliferates. At the same time, we continually titillate the public with an advertising media that uses sex to sell everything.

Bill Clinton, our 42nd president, shows up in the Circ-Sex, or Dog, area of the national chart. We could say that his comportment is a mirror of our own repressed sexual issues. The media event might have happened to show us, pro and con, where we stand, and hopefully move us to a more healthy psychology about sex. It was heartening to me to see that the populace has finally grown up and can take a rational position. Maybe we're finally reaching a maturity about sexuality, and are now truly alchemizing sex with love.

Our politicians, celebrities, and sports figures are archetypes of our population. If they have sexual issues, it's because we have sexual issues. They are playing out on a large stage what we play out in our daily lives. If we want the people who run our nation to be circumspect, then we have to create that energy for them to mirror. We will probably look back on the end of the 1990s as the unlocking of sexual repression in this country and the beginning of a more healthy approach to sex and love. It's time this country recognized that there are the three Ps: "Politics, Power, Penis" and that they are all part and parcel of one another. The most powerful man in the world must have a healthy libido or risk being emasculated in his duties (the Ox is an emasculated Bull, after all). If we are sexually healthy as a nation, then our president will be able to have a healthy sexuality as well.

It has long been privately accepted that a politician quite often marries the "proper" woman to present to the world and has his private passions. There is a big difference between sexual harassment and consensual liaisons. It is hoped we are moving to a more European view of sexuality.

This article is excerpted from:

Chinese Power Animals, ©2000,
by Pamela Leigh Powers.

Reprinted with permission of the publisher, Red Wheel Weiser. http://www.redwheelweiser.com

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About the Author

Pamela Leigh Powers is an astrologer, certified clinical hypnotherapist, Reiki Master Teacher, and Applied Kinesiology teacher through Energetic Life Balancing. She is a hypnotherapist recertification teacher for A.C.H.E. and teacher of holistic health principles. Recently, she added the DNA Activations technique to her skills. She continues to do astrology readings, as well as voice and body readings based on this work. Her website can be found at www.acumind.com.