#bigthree

Potsdam Conference: When the WWII Allies Declared Japan Must Surrender

The Potsdam Conference, held from 17 July to 2 August 1945 in Potsdam in eastern Germany, decided how the Allies would deal with a defeated Germany and how they could best conduct the ongoing campaign against Japan as the Second World War (1939-45) drew to a close. With victory in Europe achieved, US President Harry S. Truman, UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and then his successor, Clement Attlee, and the Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin issued a surrender ultimatum to Japan, known as the Potsdam Declaration. The ultimatum was ignored until US aircraft dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrendered on 14 August.

Agreement at Yalta

In February 1945, as victory seemed imminent for the Allies in the Second World War, the leaders of 'the Big Three' met at Yalta in the Crimea: President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt, the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and the Russian Premier Joseph Stalin. On the discussion table were such topics as how to deal with a defeated Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, and how to set up the United Nations, successor to the League of Nations. Poland's borders were to be shifted westwards, giving the USSR the eastern slice while acquiring a new western slice from Germany. It was agreed in principle to allow democratic elections in countries Nazi Germany had occupied. This sentiment was expressed in the Declaration on Liberated Europe.

Germany and Austria, in contrast, were to be divided into four zones of occupation (US, French, British, and Russian) with a joint military government established in each, the Allied Control Council in Germany and the Inter-Allied Council in Austria. Berlin and Vienna were similarly divided into zones of control. In addition, it was decided that each power had the right to conduct war crimes trials within its zone of occupation. Including France as an occupying power of Germany and Austria was a Western 'victory' at Yalta, as was the decision to allow France a permanent seat on the UN's governing Security Council.

Another major agreement at Yalta concerned the still ongoing fighting with Japan. In return for Russia's entering the war against Japan, certain Soviet demands would be met. These demands included control of the Kuril (aka Kurile) Islands, the southern part of Sakhalin Island (both of these are in the Sea of Okhotsk and had been occupied by Japan), and retaining the status quo regarding Mongolia, which had been a Russian client state since 1924. There were many issues still unresolved, and so the 'Big Three' planned to meet again in July, this time at Potsdam, in Germany, an area then under Soviet military control.

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The three pillars of modern astrology, after you get past Sun sign astrology, are your Sun, Moon and Rising sign (which I have complicated thoughts about -- but more on that later).

Sun: Your core self, ego and identity

Moon: Your emotional landscape, habits, and inner needs

Rising (Ascendant): How you interact with the rest of the world. How others first see you.

But to me, these "Big 3" leave out a very important part of the human experience: cognition and mental processing. Without it, I believe we can't capture the full complexity of who a person is at their most fundamental, and why they make the decisions that they make.

Why Mercury?

Mercury rules how we think, process, and communicate. It is the superego to the Moon's id and the Sun's ego. (I don't have a clean Freudian metaphor for the Rising, sorry.) It translates our internal motions and worlds (Sun and Moon) to the external (Ascendant). Without considering Mercury we risk ignoring that very crucial bridge between our motivations and our actions. No other planet has this level of foundational role in our psyche -- other than the Big 3.

Mercury helps you process and articulate your emotional needs (Moon)

Mercury helps you understand your own core motivations and desires (Sun)

Mercury impacts how the Rising sign is actually translated to the world -- after all, thinking (or lack thereof) is fundamental to making decisions on how and where to act.

How Mercury Fits In the Big 4

Imagine a two-dimensional axis:

If we consider Mercury (thinking) and the Moon (feeling) as opposites on one axis, and the Sun (internal drives) and the Ascendant (external actions) as opposites on the other, we start to see a workable framework for balancing the respective powers of the "Big 4" in a chart. As I like to call them:

Sun: How you want (motivation)

Moon: How you feel (emotion)

Rising: How you move (embodied expression)

Mercury: How you think (cognition)

For example, we might consider how dignified or debilitated a given planet is, and then we can see where along each axis a native might fall.

That's all mostly incidental though -- what I really care about is incorporating Mercury into the core reading of the chart as a balancing agent between the other three.

With Mercury, we have a richer, more nuanced framework. We can see how the energies and motions of the other chart objects are integrated and expressed via the processing of Mercury -- the integration of inner and outer worlds.

A note on sect doctrine and traditional importance:

A fair point to raise is that traditionally (hellenistically?) the Sun and Moon are considered important due to their centrality in sect doctrine, while the ascendant is critical due to setting the planetary rulers for each house. I'd argue that Mercury also has a soft signal of importance -- it is the only sect-neutral planet that can be a native of either. I'd argue that this points to its utility and function as a "bridging" energy between two diametrically opposed halves (the day and night sect; the inner and outer psychological words)

A Quick Example: Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn has:

Gemini Sun: Restless, observant and clever. Motivated to gather data and make sense of the world. Performs intelligence as allure.

Aquarius Moon: Emotional glass walls -- she watches, analyzes and retreats. Needs emotional freedom but fears it. A coolness to this placement.

Leo Rising: A sparkling icon, a force of expansive personality, a walking light source. Projects warmth, sensuality and confidence to everyone around her.

But the addition of her Gemini Mercury shows how she takes her Big 3 personality (charismatic, emotionally complex, and deeply creative) and filters it through her deep intellectual curiosity, wit, and remarkable communication and negotiation skills. Without Mercury, we don't have a clear window into how emotion and personality are translated into words and actions.

Mercury is how her Sun learned to articulate itself.

It's how her Moon kept intellectual distance from the pain.

It's how her Rising crafted a language of seduction and softness.

Mercury-Moon-Sun-Rising: An Active Feedback Loop

I'm borrowing here from my limited knowledge of psychological systems theory, so forgive me if I mis-step.

With Mercury in place, we can model identity as an adaptive feedback system rather than a static map.

Moon triggers feelings -> interpreted by Mercury

Mercury builds narrative -> energizes or inhibits Sun motivation

Sun expresses intention -> channeled through Rising action

Rising behavior leads to experience -> which re-informs and triggers Moon

Loop complete. When you're well-integrated, the cycle hums along. When you're fractured or "unhealed" one part hijacks the loops or shuts down the others. That is the client story every chart is showing.

Try It Out Yourself!

Try reading your chart with Mercury as part of your core system. You can ask yourself some questions:

How do you process what you feel? (Moon)

How do you think about and negotiate your desires? (Sun)

What story do you consciously tell when you step out into the world? (Rising)

That's Mercury. That's cognition as a bridge.

A Quick Note on Rising Sign

Gemini in sun...

Taurus in moon...

Percy: Thals, remember that time when you called Apollo hot?

Thalia: He's the sun god.

Percy: *gasps dramatically* You dare use my own spells against me, Gra- I mean, Thalia

Hazel: *sips tea*

Thalia: "use my own spells against me" ???

Nico: he watched Harry Potter, he and Annabeth got into an argument about reading the books too.

Tamaki <3