Kennedy's Passion

For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end. For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.

- Sen. Edward M. Kennedy

Late Tuesday night, just before midnight, Senator Ted Kennedy died from complications from brain cancer. This was no surprise, Senator Kennedy had been ailing for well over a year. But what he leaves behind is both a family legacy, as well as his own.

Senator Kennedy was not without a murky past filled with tragedy, loss, weakness and irresponsibility.. a past that seems to go much further back than even this one lifetime. On the night of his death Uranus (the planet of change, and radical reform) sat on his natal North Node while Saturn was moving towards the South Node. In the tradition of Jeff Greene and Steven Forrest's evolutionary astrology, the South Node is the doorway to our past lives, and the baggage we bring in with us.

Senator Kennedy's South Node sat in his 8th House, the house associated with death. He certainly had a lot to experience with tragic death in this lifetime... but apparently this is something that was brought forward from previous experiences as well. South Node in Virgo, the sign of health, illness and medicine leads us to imagine a few possibilities. One might imagine a doctor, one who had a position with great status (South Node trine Saturn), and who had the power to decide whether or not to treat and/or save individuals. Perhaps he chose to treat and save only those people who could afford to pay. Perhaps he was unable to treat and/or help all the people that he was capable of saving. Either due to inability or refusal (due to classicism, social status) to help those who needed the help the most, either way, the experiences of his past life, his responsibility for the deaths through negligence... weighed heavily on his conscience. He came into this life with a commitment to make amends. This commitment was reawakened with each tragedy in his life... the loss of his brothers, the illness of two of his children with cancer.

When his son lost a leg to cancer at the age of 12, he was struck by the fact that other families with similar ailments did not have the insurance that he had, because he was in Congress, and would have to sell their possessions, their homes in order to pay for life-saving treatments for their children. The spark of altruism, inclusion and desire to serve all of humanity was awakened in his soul... Now it's not a matter of only a chosen few being saved, but a right of everyone in the society. And so he has used his position and his power with that strong Saturn in Capricorn in his first house, to fight for the right of every individual to have adequate health care.

On the night of his death the North Node of the Moon was exactly conjunct his natal Saturn in the last degree of Capricorn. Saturn strong and angular, the statesman, who not only preached inclusiveness, he lived it, through his Pisces spirit, and path. Uranus had come back to his North Node to remind us of the brave liberal lion who governed in an age when true bipartisan politics existed. Through his legacy (Saturn in Capricorn), perhaps we can all take a page from his book, and help to take some personal responsibility (North Node in Capricorn) to promote the dream and goals that he was so very passionate about.

The Boston Globe wrote on Wednesday:

Ted Kennedy played a leading role in perhaps the greatest political drama of the 20th century - the dawning of the New Frontier and the soul-crushing assassinations that followed - but he will be remembered by history for his legislative achievements in health care, education, civil rights, and immigration.

The fact that his tangible accomplishments transcended his mythic role in the Kennedy drama attests to the vast extent of his legislative impact. In each of four areas, he dominated legislative politics for more than four decades, spanning ten presidencies, and played a large role in transforming the government’s relationship to the people.

Bill by bill, provision by provision, he expanded government health support to millions of children and the elderly, helped millions more go to college, opened the immigration doors to millions of new Americans from continents other than Europe, and protected the civil rights bulwark of the ’60s through a long period of conservative domination.

And by the time his life ended yesterday, surrounded by loved ones in a gentle scene that contrasted sharply with the violent deaths of his brothers, Ted Kennedy had built a nuts-and-bolts legacy to stand beside that of his presidential brother as a figure of hope and his senatorial brother as a figure of compassion.