Benedict Arnold (January 3, 1741 [O.S.] – June 14, 1801)

During the series 7, episode 8 (half season finale) of Outlander, we were introduced to Benedict Arnold, a man whose name is synonymous with treason (at least from the American perspective).

I rectified Arnold’s birth time, based on his father’s death (Saturn) when he was 20, and joining the Militia (Mars) @ age 16. The conjunction of the Moon and Venus in Sagittarius in his 10th House (of Career) kind of implies what the quote said about him (in the title of this post). There are two inconjuncts, one each from the conjunction of Jupiter and Neptune: they might also explain why he reverted to the other side in the American Revolutionary War. Since these two both connect to the Midheaven, I cannot rely upon their correctness because of his unknown birth time, so I won’t delineate their aspects. However, I will repeat this quote from Wikipedia:

According to W. D. Wetherell, he was:

[A]mong the hardest human beings to understand in American history. Did he become a traitor because of all the injustice he suffered, real and imagined, at the hands of the Continental Congress and his jealous fellow generals? Because of the constant agony of two battlefield wounds in an already gout-ridden leg? From psychological wounds received in his Connecticut childhood when his alcoholic father squandered the family’s fortunes? Or was it a kind of extreme midlife crisis, swerving from radical political beliefs to reactionary ones, a change accelerated by his marriage to the very young, very pretty, very Tory Peggy Shippen?

Plotting to change sides

In truth, none of us can get to really know what goes on inside another person’s mind. Like Mark Antony, he may have deserted his position in one army to join another army, because of love.