Who'd have thought baby Teddy would be the most influential Kennedy? - Newsweek

This being my second blog post about Ted Kennedy, I have to say that – despite appearances - I am not necessarily a Kennedy cheerleader by any means (Kennedy, as in family). Growing up in a Catholic family, the Kennedy's were seen as saints (picture of the Pope on the wall, joined by a picture of JFK).  And, in a weird twist of fate, my brother was born on the day that JFK was assassinated -  November 22, 1963.

But as I came of age, I began to see the dark side of this famous family ("America's Royal Family" as some have dubbed them). Chappaquiddick, Papa Joes' nefarious schemes to make sure he got a son in the White House, and oh my they made their money from bootlegging! The underbelly: not so glamorous.

And I think that's why Ted Kennedy is such a compelling figure for me. With both of his brothers assassinated - and he himself draped in scandal that spurred a defunct presidential run - he was left behind. And he did good deeds, based on his own convictions, to serve and help others.

Astrologically (you didn't think I'd leave that out did you?) Ted had a Capricorn Ascendant AND he had Saturn in CAPRICORN at 29 degrees. This makes his Capricorn energy especially heavy, and only more so because that Saturn is at 29 degrees - we astrologers call this a ‘critical degree’. It is said that those with a planet at 29 degrees must complete something in this lifetime that cannot be avoided. It’s a karmic burden, one might say.

And Ted Kennedy lived up to all that burdensome Capricorn energy (Saturn/Capricorn can definitely be oppressive). He did, after all, become the Capricorn pillar of society after a lifetime of hard work and service. His brothers flashed across the sky and dazzled us with their brilliance - THEY were the royalty. They made their contributions just by showing up.

But Teddy - Teddy got out the shovel and got to work. He earned his place in the institution of government. He became an esteemed statesman - that most obvious of Capricorn icons. At his death, he was the Kennedy with the staying power.

Many of us felt in our guts that one of the things that drove Ted Kennedy in his efforts to help others was a need for atonement for the death of Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick. We know for certain that this is true now because Ted's memoir was released shortly after his death (he died of brain cancer on August 25, 2009). In that memoir, Ted writes that he felt deep remorse for his "inexcusable behavior" on that fateful night in 1969, and that he sought atonement during the rest of his life.

And so we have a story of The Quest for Redemption - a story to which we all can relate. And the following excerpt from a  blog-post by RJ Eskow, further illuminates a possible deeper meaning of Ted Kennedy’s life:

<< Ted Kennedy was a Catholic not a Buddhist, but the remainder of his life reads like a Bodhisattvic exercise. (In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, a"bodhisattva" is an enlightened being who refuses Nirvana and stays in this world to help others.)

His brothers flashed across the national stage like shooting stars, brief and brilliant. Teddy's was a slower fire, like the hearth around which a family could gather. He was the one who stayed behind to do the hard work. The dilettante younger brother, the drinker and partier from whom little was expected and less was delivered, the guy who cheated on his exams at Harvard because he couldn't be bothered to study ...

[Yet] he was the brother who spent five decades poring tirelessly over endless pages of legislation and policy briefings. He stayed behind to take care of everyone's children, to fight for the powerless, to do what needed to be done on a daily basis.

His personal struggles were well-known. He "struggled with his demons," people said, using a phrase that might have come straight from Tibetan symbolism. He was forced to expose his human weaknesses in a public way, a way that his brothers did not. I remember seeing him on Boston Common once during those dark days. It was a shocking sight, the once-beautiful scion reduced to an ashen specter. His skin seemed to be the same shade as his gray hair and suit, its surface the puffy texture of warts.

I don't know what tools he used to escape those demons, but people say he found meaning, purpose, and happiness in the hard work of the Senate. He accepted his fate - as a Kennedy, as the Kennedy who survived, as a hard-working solon - with what appeared to be joy and grace. He grew into the shape laid down for him by time and events. The gray lifted. With the brush of years he colored in the silhouette that inspired [so many on both sides of the aisle].

He kept the vow. He stayed behind. He relished the prosaic tasks of human existence. Chop wood, carry water - pass legislation.>>

His story is our story -  especially now, at the beginning of the 21st century, a  time of great change at the crease between ages. Whether you call this time the transition from the Age of Pisces into the Age of Aquarius, or from the Industrial Age into the Technological Age, I think we all can agree that this is a time of rapid change from one form to another.

We are all staying behind during these uncertain times, and doing the daily chores it takes to achieve at-One-ment and to forge real change in the world.